The Picture: Part 4-The War
by CandasaurFlag
Summary: Sequel to The Picture: Part 3-The Training. The Tkpxzv are attacking Tizilidai, Stacy is leading a rebellion on Trisaria, and the whole Epsilon Eridani star system is in tumult. Violence and bloodshed rage across the two planets as humans, Alions, Candasaurs, and Tkpxzv all fight to decide the destinies of themselves and their peoples. T for intense war violence.
1. Chapter 1: Candace vs Discourager Ray

AUTHOR'S NOTE: You remember when Phineas and Ferb built the roller coaster?

If we were to compare your current position in the story to their roller coaster

ride, then you would currently be in orbit, watching that satellite that was

supposed to fall to Earth and land on the house so Candace could be in charge.

In a moment, you will begin the billion-mile-an-hour descent back through the

atmosphere and, after nearly being incinerated, you will crash down into the

tree in the backyard, somehow magically safe and sound. Until then, you will

be screaming your head off and praying that you won't die :) Enjoy the ride.

And if you haven't read parts 1-3... read them first, otherwise this'll be like

watching the last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender without having

actually watched the series. It's really cool-it just doesn't make any sense.

The Picture: Part 4-The War

Chapter 1: Candace vs. the Discourager Ray

Isabella watched the fighting from the cliffs overlooking the village.

She really wanted to jump off. When she'd first made her promise to Phineas,

she would never have believed just how evil she would have had to become just

to keep it. Her well-meaning oath had led her to attempt murder, help enslave

an alien race, actually commit murder, and now, help enslave another alien

race. Oh, if only her Mom could see her now, wouldn't she be proud?

All this, because she loved that little, triangle-faced, tyrant more

than what was right and wrong. She was chained to him by her own desire, and

now, the sins he had caused her to commit. Did she regret it? She couldn't

tell. She was still numb from splatting Candace all over the bottom of that

gorge. Once you've murdered the innocent not much matters.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed hordes of Tkpxzv

appearing from thin air around the village below. Isabella knew, of course,

that they weren't really coming out of nowhere. The Tkpxzv spacecraft were

completely clear and nearly impossible to see. They had landed and now the

soldiers were leaving the craft to attack the village. Isabella watched and

almost jumped when thousands of Alions suddenly appeared around the various

landing sites and began shooting madly at the Tkpxzv, who started dropping

by the hundreds. Isabella was wondering just how it was the Tkpxzv would have

ever conquered anything if there hadn't been so many of them when she was

startled by a heavy WHOMP behind her. She turned and saw (barely) that a

Tkpxzv spacecraft had landed behind her and Phineas. Within moments, several

dozen Tkpxzv emerged, some of them pushing on multiple copies of

Phineas' invention, the Discourager Ray.

"This battle's gonna be over in five minutes," Isabella noted dully.

"Hey, guys, glad you're here," Phineas called to his regiment, "The

Alions have just emerged from their hiding places. Line the rays up along the

cliff, set up the air defenses and we'll go to town!"

"Yes, sir!" the Tkpxzv cried.

Phineas turned to Isabella, "You're commander of half these guys,

you'd better get up and lead them!"

"You lead 'em. I'm just gonna watch."

"Still down in the dumps?"

"Yeah."

"It's over Isabella. You might as well just get on with your life."

"Whatever."

Phineas sighed and shrugged, then turned back to his troops and began

barking orders. Isabella went and grabbed a pair of binoculars from one of

Tkpxzv soldiers to see the action with. All over now she could see Tkpxzv and

Alions blasting away at each other. A lot of them were dying on both sides,

but the Tkpxzv were definitely doing worse. She could see Alions going down

here and there, but the poorly-trained Tkpxzv conscripts were getting

slaughtered by the hundreds. Several of the groups that had left their craft

turned around and ran back into their craft, one of which got blown up by an

Alion Sphere Blaster. She put her goggles down, shaking her head. She looked

over at Phineas directing his aliens.

"The Alions are going to lose, but they should win. If Phineas wasn't

here the Tkpxzv wouldn't have a chance," Isabella muttered to herself. She

continued to watch spacecraft after spacecraft land with its troops and then

get ripped apart by the Alion forces. No wonder this planet had never been

conquered...

"Fire!" Phineas yelled.

"And now it ends," Isabella said.

The Discourager Rays began firing left and right at the knots of Alion

warriors, and pretty soon the situation was reversed, with the Tkpxzv chasing

the routing Alions back to their village, even though they (the Alions)

clearly should have had the upper hand. Alion Sphere Blasters began

noticing the Discourager Rays and started trying to attack them, but they

couldn't get past the thick air defenses and Tkpxzv craft defending the

position.

"Another one in the bag, eh, Isabella?" Phineas said.

She didn't even answer. She felt awful, knowing she had helped cause

this. She pulled up the binoculars again and began looking at the fleeing

Alions. As she turned from one group to another, she happened to glance up

near the gorge she had dumped Candace in. Her guilt intensified further as

she was reminded of the blood she had spilled to make sure Phineas would win

today. She gazed at it for a while and finally turned a bit and saw something

that made her feel even worse... which was surprising because it actually made

her feel less guilty. The guilt was, however, replaced by incredible fear.

She took her eyes away, and looked again. She turned away, and looked

again, and again, and again, willing the specter to leave, wishing the wraith

would go away, but she couldn't deny what she saw.

"No... how?" Isabella whispered shakily, "Ph-Phineas? Phineas?

PHINEAS!"

Phineas ran over, looking alarmed, "What? What's wrong?"

She handed him the binoculars, "Just look..."

He picked up the binoculars and looked, "Okay... what am I supposed to

be-?"

He froze, and Isabella knew he saw it. He just stared for a bit, then

he growled fiercely, threw the binoculars down and let out an angry roar.

One of the nearby Tkpxzv spoke, "Captain Flynn, is something wrong?"

"All guns fire that way!" Phineas screamed, pointing.

"But... that's just an empty field..." he replied.

"I'm the captain, do what I say!" Phineas yelled.

"Yes, sir!" he said, and the Tkpxzv all turned and began firing their

Discouragers at what appeared to be an empty field. Isabella picked up the

binoculars and looked out again.

"It's no good, Phineas, you're missing completely!" she said.

"I don't care! If they fire enough shots one's bound to hit her!"

"And do what? Make her wet her pants?"

Phineas paused, then said, "That would help!"

"The Alions are starting to regroup, Captain Flynn!" the Tkpxzv said,

should we begin firing on them again?"

Phineas hesitated, then groaned and said, "Yes."

"Yes, sir! All guns resume firing at will on Alion Forces!" the

Tkpxzv cried. The other Tkpxzv obeyed and the rout soon resumed back down in

the village.

Phineas looked at Isabella, "How? Isabella, how?"

Isabella stared at him uneasily for a bit, then slowly looked up at

the sky.

"Oh, c'mon, really?" Phineas asked.

"How else? She wasn't exactly trying to catch the cliffs or anything!

She was broken! She'd given up! She was just going to let herself go splat!"

"So you're saying something must've saved her, like her shirt caught

on a rock or something?"

"Yeah."

"But you don't think it's a coincidence?"

"Not really."

Phineas growled, "That's crazy stuff Isabella. She just got lucky,

that's all."

"Okay..." said Isabella.

Phineas sighed, "Watch her will you? Make sure she doesn't screw

things up."

"Yeah..." Isabella said, pulling up the binoculars again and looking

out at Candace. She was crouching behind a boulder, watching the action and

apparently trying to decide what to do.

"Maybe you did get lucky, Candace Flynn, but I don't think so," she

whispered, "You lost every battle with him back on Earth, but I think you were

meant to win this one. Guess we'll know when this battle's over..."

"What do I do?" Candace wondered aloud, "There's no way to win with

those Discourager Rays, and I can't fight Phineas and his entire bodyguard

myself! The Alions are about to be destroyed and I can't do anything to stop

it!"

Candace stared in horror for a while at the fleeing Alions. There

were TONS of them. She figured most of the planet had gathered to fight the

battle. There were more of them than there were Tkpxzv, but all the Alions

ever were completely useless if they wouldn't stand and fight. Most of them

were cowering in Kilisyth already, and the Tkpxzv had the entire village

surrounded.

Candace yelled in frustration and sat down hard in the Alion grass.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Is this why I lived? So I could witness my final failure? This

would never have happened if I hadn't busted Phineas and brought him here.

I should have just killed myself... I would've deserved it."

She looked again to see hundreds of Alions getting cut down as they

ran from their enemies. Candace almost couldn't stand to watch. She knew

that within minutes all the Alion Forces would be trapped in the

village and that the Tkpxzv would butcher every last one of them and the

Alions wouldn't even put up a fight.

"You know..." Candace muttered, "Maybe it's better that I lived.

Watching this and knowing that I caused it is a fate worse than death."

She stared numbly, wishing, almost praying that a miracle would

happen-but knowing that it wouldn't.

"I wish..." Candace said tearfully, "There was something... anything

that I could do... I caused this... I wish I could fix it somehow... change

what I've done... but I can't. The last hope of the Milky Way is going to be

crushed forever... all because I had to go and bust Phineas."

She sat and stared, silently weeping.

"I can't take this anymore," she finally said. She took her

swordspear and put it to her throat, "Their last hope is dead, my last hopes

are dead, so I might as well be dead, too. At least I can say I had the

decency to die with them."

Candace awkwardly held the blade to her throat and prepared to cut,

when something crossed her mind.

"Wait... didn't that prophecy say something about what I was supposed

to do when all the hope was dead?" She thought a moment.

"Use the weapon Candace gives you..." she said, She looked over at

the big tent she'd had the prophecy at, "From the top of the cliff I got the

prophecy on..."

She stared at the cliff, which she noticed was directly over the

center of town where the scared Alions were all huddling together.

"Candace didn't give me a weapon, though... she just taught me that

song..."

Candace kept staring. Everything slowly coalesced in her head.

"That song... the Alions sang it when exactly this was about to happen

to their old city... it gave them the courage to stop running and fight

back... of course... holy guacamole, I need to go get my guitar!" Candace

dropped her spear and made a mad dash for Candace the Candasaur's house,

hoping beyond hope that was she was about to try would work.

Minutes later she made it to the Candasaur's house. She was surprised

to see Candace and her parents positioned around the yard, waiting for Tkpxzv

to show up. Candace the Candasaur saw her human counterpart running toward

them and called to her.

"Candace! There you are! What happened?"

Candace dashed up to the Candasaur, "I'll explain later. Quick! We

need to get me, a guitar, and a boom box to the top of the cliff we got our

prophecies at!

Candace furrowed her nonexistent eyebrow, "What? You want to play

music at a time like this?"

"Not just any music... THE music."

The Candasaur thought for a bit, then her eyes widened, "The old song

from the city siege..."

"Yep."

"That's brilliant! Let's go!"

"What are you talking about?" Candace's father asked.

"Just trust us, Dad, let's go!"

The four of them charged into the house and grabbed a bunch of musical

equipment before charging back out and straight for the big initiate tent.

"What's she doing?" Isabella asked herself. She watched as Candace

and the three Candasaurs darted through the woods leading toward a big tent,

carefully avoiding gunshots, bomb blasts and Tkpxzv soldiers. She noted the

guitar, but wasn't sure why Candace would want to play a song during an

apocalyptic final battle. A funeral hymn, maybe? After several minutes she

and the Candasaurs reached the tent and set up their equipment on top of the

cliff. Candace hooked up the guitar to what looked like a couple of speakers,

took a big breath, and...

She started singing a song. In Alion. All Isabella could hear was a

bunch of incoherent spitting and gargling.

"I don't get it."

Isabella turned and saw Phineas standing next to her, He was staring

at Candace, looking totally perplexed.

Isabella just shrugged.

Candace felt like a complete idiot. She heard the Alion gibberish

gushing from her mouth and heard herself playing random chords on the guitar

(she never came up with a tune for the song) and, although she at least knew

what the song was saying, the clear ineptness of her performance was making

her seriously question the little venture.

"Ah, grath batz, jyixth jikthya zoth!

Gz jyixth vulunk izo harrgdt yik!

Ma zakbg! Ma ziyith! Ma zyuns!

Ma zixi! Ma zix! Ma ishth yza!"

"What the heck is she singing?" Isabella asked, "If you call that

singing, that is."

_What the heck am I singing? _Candace thought to herself. She was

about to drop the guitar and quit when she noticed a sound from the Alions

down in the square. It was a sound even more horrible than the ones she was

making, but her heart leapt when she heard it.

Down below, she heard one, single, lone Alion voice breaking into song

and taking up the lament (yes, it was a lament) with her. Candace shrugged

and continued.

"Zagrak az trith, zigirth ti zyeeth az shooth!

Zakoong ziz Raxaat ganx, ugr dax xankx!"

Isabella and Phineas listened in confusion as the bizarre song drifted

on the wind up to their cliff. They began to hear Alion voices chiming (or

spitting) in as well.

"The Alions seem to know what this is," Isabella observed.

"Yeah, but that doesn't really help us," Phineas replied.

Candace continued, heart pounding as she heard more and more Alions

joining her so-called song. She couldn't believe her horrible spitting and

jumble of guitar chords was actually having an effect. Although the Alions

seemed to be enjoying the concert, the reader is probably totally frustrated

by now because they haven't understood a single word of Candace's song. A

translation of the previous six lines follows:

"O, my city, how are you lost!

How have you fallen before this terrible host!

My home! My children, my sweet wife!

My friends! My family! My entire life!

Tattered and burned, smoking in flames and ashes!

The taskmasters of Raaxat come, bearing their lashes!"

Now you're up to speed. Candace sang on in Alion, but here it's

translated:

"Freedom and liberty, the joys of this life,

Today they are destroyed by this false god's strife!

Never again will this world be free!

Never again will I breathe the sweet air of liberty!

Gone is my city, that hope of Tizilidai!

Gone is that light I hoped would never die!"

As she finished the first verse, a strange feeling came over Candace,

and she could almost hear the voices of the ancient Alions lamenting the fall

of their city... and she could almost hear them singing. Her jumbled guitar

notes began to gain some sort of structure, and all the spitting and nonsense

started sounding vaguely like music. She went on:

"Now I stare, whilst you are burned,

And wish, somehow, you could return,

That this army would move on,

That we would be safe

That our soldiers were strong

And could win the day

Alas! It is only my wishful desire!

Only the heavens could save us now!

Our city stands burned in the fire!

And dripping with tears my head I bow,

Broken in heart, broken in spirit, sadly I

Long for my city, that light I wished would never die."

By now the entire Alion army was singing, and the song was actually

starting to sound like, well, a song. Candace played a strange, haunting, yet

sweet melody on her guitar. She didn't know where it was coming from, but

something told her she was somehow channeling the same melody sung by the

ancient Alions.

"Huh, well, I guess it's a confirmed song then," Isabella said, "The

Alions must understand it."

Phineas stared at Candace, eyes narrowed and with his fingers

scratching his non-chin, "I wonder if she's trying to inspire them with a

patriotic hymn or something," he said, "Tkpxzv! Fire all Discouragers at that

ledge!"

Candace went on to the third verse. She was starting to get caught up

in the song and to really feel the music move through her:

"O, heavens above us, is there anything thou canst not do?

Even now you can deliver us, powers above, we call on you!

Return to us our city!

Do this thing we ask!

We know that thou art mighty,

And canst accomplish any task!

All things are-

Candace saw a bright flash and suddenly felt a terrible panic wash

over her. She stopped abruptly and almost ran, but she heard the Alions

singing below and was filled with a strange courage that helped her continue:

-in your hands

And you can save our little band

We know, through thee, that we can stand

The last of the free, 'gainst foes like sand!

The power that made the stars in the sky

Can save our city, our star, that light that must never die!

Candace got blasted over and over as she sang, but the mad fear that

had first enveloped her got squashed by the encouragement she got from the

song. It was hard to resist the urge to panic, but she forced herself to

stand and keep singing. The Alions below were now singing loud and strong, as

they had all those years before.

"Why isn't it working?" Phineas cried, "She should be running like a

ninny!"

Isabella barely listened to him. She watched the concert and shook

her head. Somehow she felt that something didn't want Phineas to win this

battle. The powers that had once protected him and preserved him had deserted

him for his sister.

"The shoe's on the other foot," Isabella muttered.

Down in the valley, the massive swarm of Tkpxzv had surrounded the

Alions in the city, and they were closing in for the kill. The Alions,

however, instead of cowering like they had earlier, turned outward and began

rushing towards their foes, singing the song of their forefathers:

"With the powers of Heaven we will stand!

We'll stand and fight and save our land!

No force is too strong, no army too great,

To destroy a free people, to break down their gate!"

Up on the cliffs, Phineas realized the Alions had regained their will

to fight and ordered his Tkpxzv to open fire all over the Alion army.

It didn't work. The Alions sang on as they charged their foes:

"Through struggle and strife we will prevail,

Our free brothers and sisters, once more we will hail,

In our free city, bastion of liberty,

In a world of slaves, the light of the free!

To choose our own destiny, that is our way!

To make our own fates, we will conquer today!"

Candace almost stopped singing as she saw the two armies about to

collide. She expected them to smash into each other in an epic charge and

started slugging it out back and forth.

Instead, the Alions suddenly took flight and soared over their

astonished foes. A cyan-blue cloud of Alions warriors hid the Tkpxzv army

from Candace's view. As they hovered over their foes they finished the song,

"Warriors of this nation, ye free people of Tizilidai,

Let us stand, fight, and save our city,

That light that will never die!"

After that the Alions all let out a horrible roar and swooped down

upon their enemies. Candace heard thousands of Tkpxzv screams as the

Alion cloud completely enveloped its foes. Candace stared in horror as the

Alions landed and began literally ripping their under-trained and physically

weaker opponents to shreds. Blood and alien body parts and screams of terror

filled the air above the battlefield as the Alions did what they did best-kill

stuff. A few Tkpxzv tried to escape, but they were far too slow and the

Alions flew right after them and slaughtered them too. In less than a minute

the entire Tkpxzv force had been annihilated. The Alions stopped for a moment,

looked around, and then one by one they shouted until the whole area erupted

into a valley-shaking cheer.

The Alions had won. Tizilidai had been saved.

"Wow. That was a reversal. That battle was over as soon as it

started!" Isabella exclaimed.

Phineas stared in slack-jawed amazement at the cheering Alions. It

looked as though his brain had completely locked up. He simply did not know

how to react to... that.

"Captain Flynn! We need to go before the Alions come up here and kill

us!" one of Phineas' soldiers cried.

"Go... right..." Phineas said dazedly. He said it, but he didn't do

anything. Isabella finally grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the

Tkpxzv spacecraft behind them.

"C'mon, Phineas, let's go. Candace won."

"But-but-but-but-but-but-but-" Phineas began repeating.

If things hadn't been so grim Isabella probably would have laughed

at the irony of the situation. The shoe was INDEED on the other foot. She

dragged Phineas to the spacecraft, followed by the Tkpxzv squad, and then they

took off and left the planet, heading for Trisaria.

"Candace you did it!" Candace the Candasaur cried. She leapt on

Candace and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Yeah..." Candace was almost as flabbergasted as Phineas was, "I guess

I did. I guess you can beat a scary gun with a cool song."

"Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace!"

Candace looked down and saw the horde of blood-stained Alions shouting

her name. She stared at them with her mouth open like a big dummy until an

Alion suddenly swooped down and landed next to her.

"Candace, my daughter, you have saved our people!" Xosizi yelled.

"Hey, I just, sang a little song..." Candace said shyly.

"I have come up with a name for you," he said.

"Oh, yeah, what's that?"

"Aizyalia."

"That's quite a name."

"Indeed it is," Xosizi said. He seemed to choke a little on the last

word. Candace was shocked to see a tear roll down his stalk.

"Xosizi? Are you crying?" Candace asked, "I didn't know Alions DID

that."

"Aizyalia is the city... Candace," he whispered.

"The city? The one the Ancient Alions defended?"

"Trag. For as Aizyalia was the light that never died, so were you

today our undying light of hope in our darkest hour. You reminded us of

things we had long forgotten, reminded us of who we were..."

He paused for a moment, then whispered:

"And you reminded me that the Heavens are still there."

At this point the old warrior broke down completely. Candace knelt

down in front of him and the two embraced. As Xosizi wept, Candace looked up

at the sky. Clouds had rolled in since the start of the battle, but as she

looked, the clouds parted and a single ray of light shone down directly on the

spot where she and Xosizi were standing. Candace's eyes welled up with tears

as well.

"Thank you," she whispered, "Who or whatever's up there... thank you."


	2. Chapter 2: The Battle of Red River Dam

Chapter 2: The Battle of Red River Dam

Stacy was exhausted, but pleased. The Tkpxzv had been trying for

hours to break her defenses, but to no avail. Her catapults, rock-flinging

recruits, electric mines and, occasionally, barricade spikes had held back

wave after wave after wave of Tkpxzv attackers. Hundreds upon hundreds of

their corpses lay all around her fortress, and still more of them came. They

had brought in many more rubber rugs so they could cross her minefield, but

they still hadn't been able to charge with enough mass to overwhelm her and

her recruits. They had just broken off yet another assault a few minutes ago,

and now they were preparing for another.

"I don't understand why they keep trying," a recruit sitting next to

Stacy said, "You think they'd have realized it's not going to work by now."

"I think they don't have much of a choice. We didn't leave them with

very many ways they could attack," Stacy replied.

"Looks like some of them are trying something new, look!" another

recruit said, pointing.

Stacy looked out and saw that some of the Tkpxzv were carrying large

metal sheets. They were lining up in front of their battalions, raising the

sheets like huge shields. A lot of the Tkpxzv were also dousing themselves

in water.

"They're trying to protect themselves from our rocks and our exploding

pots," Stacy observed, "Some of them might be able to get through this time."

Stacy put her radio to her mouth and spoke to her recruits, "Get ready

for some hand-to-hand fighting. Make sure your wires are touching the ground,

get out the flamethrowers, and have your knives ready. Upper levels, we'll be

counting on you to fire past the Tkpxzv shields and wear them down. Lower

levels, don't use the flamethrowers until they drop their shields. I think

they'll have to put them down to get past our spikes."

Her orders need explanation. The fortress was on the top of a hill,

and it had several layers of spiked barricades surrounding it. This meant

that the barricades further back were above the ones at the front. Stacy had

also made sure each recruit had a wire on their body that ran to the ground

because the Tkpxzv had a close-combat weapon that disintegrated their

opponents that seemed to rely on electricity, and as for the flamethrowers...

they were basically aerosol cans fired through a lit candle.

Anyway, the Tkpxzv formed up and charged again. Stacy once again

ordered her troops to fire, causing massive casualties among the Tkpxzv who

were further back from the shields. Several groups of the protected Tkpxzv

reached the first barricades, and then were forced to throw their shields away

in order to climb past the barricade stakes. When they did this and started

climbing through, Stacy ordered her recruits to fire their flamethrowers.

This gave the Tkpxzv yet another nasty surprise and basically roasted a bunch

of them before they could climb over. Some of the Tkpxzv who caught fire

jumped off the barricades and started running through their fellows, catching

them on fire or knocking them off the rubber rugs and into the electric mines.

A few Tkpxzv did break through, particularly the ones who had doused

themselves in water, but there were too few who climbed across the barricades

to have any real impact... especially since their electric weapons (for some

reason) weren't frying their enemies properly. Stacy herself got slapped by a

Tkpxzv soldier and his disintegrator-but all it did was give her a good zap.

Unpleasant, but certainly not lethal. She and her recruits quickly took out

their knives and ripped their opponent to shreds, then tossed him over the

stakes and into the minefield.

It wasn't long before the charge was decimated and the Tkpxzv fell

back again. Dozens of them were dead and hundreds had been injured. Stacy's

recruits, on the other hand, were all alive and well. The Tkpxzv had yet to

inflict any casualties or damage on the enemy force. The Tkpxzv regrouped a

few minutes later and tried again, with similarly disastrous results. They

tried another time, and again got thrashed. After a fourth attempt, the

Tkpxzv finally quit and started setting up camp for the night. They had the

entire fortress surrounded, but they couldn't seem to take it, so they decided

to hold off for the time being. Stacy started setting up a watch for the

night and began getting some food passed around to her recruits. After that,

she pulled out her radio and called Jim, who was overseeing her spies down in

CandasaurusCity.

"Jim, any signs of an uprising yet?"

"No, but the Tkpxzv are having trouble keeping track of the citizens

because most of them are out fighting you. A lot of people are sneaking off

or goofing around."

"Did they notice the flag? Do they know what's going on?"

"Oh, yeah. The whole city's talking about it. The Tkpxzv won't admit

it, but almost everyone's put two and two together and figured out that

there's an uprising over at the dam. I MAY have slipped and told a few of

them that the recruits, Flynnya and a friend of Candace might be behind the

whole thing."

Stacy smiled, "Good. Try and get some of them to start causing

problems for the guards. The Tkpxzv will be in real trouble if you start a

revolt and they lose the city because of it."

"Will do. I think the longer you hold out, the more confidence

they'll have that they can beat them. By the way, how have things gone today?

The citizens really want a report from the front line."

"Great. I think we killed a couple thousand Tkpxzv today, but all

of the recruits are still alive. The Tkpxzv just can't seem to get past our

defenses."

"Excellent, the citizens will be delighted. Anything else, Stacy?"

"That's all for now. Just get the citizens to rise up and start

retaking the city."

"Understood, Jim out!"

"Captain Flynn, you fool! This is a disaster!"

"Hey, I was only one part of the attack!"

"Yes, but you were by far the most important one! Because your

invention failed, most of our military force in this part of the galaxy has

been annihilated!"

"Well, what was I supposed to have done? I didn't know music

counteracted the effects of the Discourager Ray!"

"You should have had a backup plan, another weapon, perhaps! Someone

was bound to find your weapon's weakness eventually!"

"Well, what do you want me to do about it now?"

"Redeem yourself."

"What?"

"A revolt has begun on Trisaria. Some Candasaurs have taken up an

incredibly strong defensive position and our men are unable to storm their

fortress. I need you to find a way to break through the defenses and defeat

the rebels."

Phineas sighed, "Fine, I'll see what I can do."

"Do not fail me this time, Captain Flynn. If Trisaria is also lost I

greatly fear that we will completely lose control of the Epsilon Eridani

system, and that with so few soldiers remaining Sirius itself will be

vulnerable to attack by the Alions and the Candasaurs. If the Sirius system

falls, we will entirely lose control over this sector of the galaxy."

"All right, I'll make sure it doesn't happen."

"Good, you are dismissed."

Phineas turned and left the control room, where the Tkpxzv governor had

been berating him through a video communicator. Out in the hall, he looked

out the clear wall of the craft and down at Tizilidai, which was falling away

quickly. He was still in shock. He couldn't understand how Candace had

turned things around so quickly. He sighed and walked down to his room, where

he flopped down on one of the giant fluff ball beds that the Tkpxzv used.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Phineas looked up and over toward the door, "Come in," he said.

The door opened and Isabella walked in, looking bored but slightly

concerned.

"The Governor wasn't happy, was he?" Isabella said.

"Not at all."

"I'm sorry."

Phineas sat up and shrugged, "I guess you can't win 'em all."

"Is he going to punish you?"

"No, not yet, anyway. He wants me to go back to Trisaria and put down

a revolt there."

"I see..." said Isabella.

The two of them were quiet for a moment.

"Phineas..." said Isabella.

"What?"

"We need to get out of here."

"What do you mean?"

"We need to get away from the Tkpxzv."

Phineas groaned, "So we lost once. Big deal, Isabella."

"Phineas, don't you see what's happening? The tables are turning!

The Tkpxzv are starting to get their butts kicked by the Alions and the

Candasaurs, but they're blaming you for it! We have to get out before they

really start losing and hang you for their incompetence!"

"Relax. I'll crush this rebellion on Trisaria and things will be cool

again."

"Phineas, the only reason these bumbling fuzz-mops have any power in

this system is because of you! You've seen how they fight! They're USELESS!

Every battle they get slaughtered by the thousands! If you make one lousy

Mista]ke they're doomed!"

"So I won't make any mistakes."

"You just did! Those Discouragers were a one-trick pony!"

"Just because I lost once, doesn't mean I'll lose next time."

"No, it doesn't, but it's why you lost this time that worries me."

"You think Candace won because she was fighting for a righteous cause

and I was fighting for my own selfish gain and God or something helped her

win... am I right?"

"Well... yes."

"Remind me never to make you my head scientist."

"Phineas, please listen to me. I don't want to see Candace and these

aliens beat you! I don't..."

"You don't want to see your knight in shining armor fall?"

"Yeah..."

"Look, Isabella, this is not about God or karma or anything mystic.

This is all about brains and skill, and I've got more of that than all these

aliens put together and Candace. She just caught me off guard, that's all.

If we were to invade again I'd whip her easy."

"I've always admired how confident you are, Phineas, but I think

you're getting arrogant. You have so much faith in yourself that you don't

believe you can lose!"

"I'm not saying I CAN'T lose, I'm saying I WON'T."

"You can't predict that!"

"I don't care! We're going to Trisaria, we're crushing that

rebellion, and no one, much less you, is going to stop me!"

Isabella stood, stunned and slightly hurt by the rebuke. Finally, she

straightened up and spoke.

"Guess you don't need my opinion, then?"

"Not right now, no."

Isabella hung her head and turned to leave, "Okay, Phineas..."

Candace sat alone outside the Candasaurs' house, gazing up at the

stars. She had had a fantastic day celebrating victory with the Alions and

the Candasaurs, but something was nagging her in the back of her mind. She

knew she wasn't done. She still had more to do.

"Aizyalia."

Candace turned and saw Xosizi walking up beside her. He sat down.

"You seem to be lost in thought," he said.

"Trag..." Candace replied.

"Do you wish to share?"

"This isn't over, is it?" Candace asked.

"Your prophecy seemed to indicate that the battle today was just the

beginning," Xosizi replied.

"Trisaria was next... the Heavens want me to go save the Candasaurs

now."

"Trag."

They were quiet for a moment.

"Why me, Xosizi?" Candace wondered.

"The greatest among us almost never realize their greatness, which is

one reason they can become great."

"Not believing in yourself makes you great?"

"There are many proud, confident people who fall because their pride

makes them believe they are invincible. They belittle and thus underestimate

the abilities of those around them, and others will eventually defeat them.

They are like a fortress in the sky. They appear great, but their claims and

fantasies about themselves are baseless, thus, when put to the test, they

tumble to the ground... kind of like your brother did today."

"I think that was just a fluke..." Candace said.

Xosizi shook his head, "What happened today was no fluke. Your

brother was so confident in his invention that he ignored the obvious fact

that someone might find a way to beat it. You, on the other hand, didn't

know if you could defeat him, only that you had to try."

"He's way smarter than I am. I think I just got lucky. I really

don't see that happening twice..."

"And that's exactly why it will. If this defeat didn't humble him,

your brother will fall time and again to his enemies because he will always

underestimate them. A proud person is like a fortress in the sky, while a

humble person is like a rock. A humble person acknowledges his weaknesses and

does his best to compensate for them. They will tend to overestimate their

foes and do more than is necessary to defeat them. The greatest warrior is

the one who does not recognize his greatness."

"What if you're just plain not great, though? Like, you don't have

any big talents or anything?"

"Doesn't matter, because one who is humble is also willing to learn.

They will cry to the Heavens for help, and the Heavens will deliver because

they know the humble one trusts them and will accept their help. The humble

who believe in something can do great things because they will do all they

can and learn all they can because they know they need to in order to defend

the things they care about. Does that make sense?"

"Sure."

"Just... don't ever believe that you're invincible, but always stand

up for what's right, and you will conquer again and again."

"I'll try to remember that."

"Good. When are you planning to go to Trisaria?"

"Tomorrow if I can."

Xosizi nodded, "I'll try and find a spacecraft for you in the

morning."

"Do you think you could get a force of Alion warriors to come with

me?"

Xosizi sighed and shook his head, "The Elders are on full alert for

another Tkpxzv attack. They're not going to be willing to spare any force for

offensive purposes at this time."

"How am I supposed to beat the Tkpxzv without any help?" Candace

asked.

"The Heavens said to use the weapon they gave you."

"The swordspear?"

"And your spirit rock, I suppose."

"Xosizi, one spear and a battery aren't going to defeat ten thousand

Tkpxzv."

"The turning of the tide of battle begins with one warrior's decision

to return to the fray. Why do you think that is, Aizyalia?"

"Because the other soldiers follow him back."

"Sometimes all that is required is for one person to turn and refuse

the hand of fate to turn it aside. They simply have to have the courage to

do what they know is right, and then the Heavens will open the way."

"And one of those ways might be that seeing him stand up will give the

other warriors the guts to stand up."

"Trag."

"That'd be great advice except I don't have an army!" Candace said.

Xosizi thought a moment, then said something odd, "Kill them all. If

they run away they'll fight again."

Candace gave him a funny look, "What?"

"An Alion general once said that. He always pursued the enemy if they

fled from him because he knew if he didn't kill them then they would return

and fight him again later."

"Okay... what does that have to do with anything?"

"A whole lot, actually. You need an army, don't you?"

"Yeah... so, what? I should look for a bunch of cowards who ran

away-?" Candace suddenly froze.

Xosizi smiled, "Have you gotten it yet?"

"The Candasaur recruits..." Candace said.

"They never died. They're still waiting for their Red and White

Goddess of Thunder to return and lead them to victory!"

"But... how do I find them?"

"You call their radios. They're all on the same encrypted frequency,

and I happen to remember what that frequency is."

Candace smiled, "Well, that solves that problem, but what about their

weapons? Those guns are probably almost out of ammunition. Do you think I

could bring some with me?"

"Skirth," Xosizi said unhappily, "The Elders will want to keep all the

arms they can."

"There must be SOMETHING I can bring them. We can't win without any

firepower!"

Xosizi scratched his chin, "Well..."

"Swordspears? Really?" Candace griped.

"Well, we won't need them to fight off the Tkpxzv, that's for sure..."

Xosizi said. He had taken Candace to the local museum and talked to the

owner, who had a life-size Alion phalanx complete with real swordspears on

display.

"There's no way I'd give you these if I didn't think they might help

write a new chapter in warrior history..." said the owner.

"My humblest thanks," Xosizi replied, "May we have some of your old

bows, as well? An army with no ranged weapons is easy to destroy from a

distance."

"Fine, fine, but that's it!"

Candace looked carefully at the phalanx as Xosizi and the owner

talked. A thought struck her, "Hey, these guys are all wearing armor. Do you

think-?"

"No! I'm giving you far too much already! It wouldn't fit anyway..."

"Could I at least have the shields? That would protect them from

Tkpxzv lasers. They're really really well polished..."

"No! I'm giving you-!"

"She has a point," Xosizi said, "Those swordspears are going to be a

lot more likely to make history if the warriors holding them can hide behind

those shields as well."

"Well..."

"It's for a good cause, man," Candace said, putting her hand on the

owner's shoulder.

"It is," Xosizi added, putting his claw on the owner's other shoulder.

The owner looked at the two of them and sighed.

They spent the next few hours loading swordspears, shields, and bows

and arrows into a rented Sphere Blaster and its massive (newly attached) cargo

bay. They had gone and gotten Candace the Candasaur and her mother and

father as well to help load all the weapons. It took hours, but they still finished

before the night was up. After that they went back to the Candasaurs' house

and rested, awaiting the new day. When the sun came up, Candace arose and

packed her bags. By the time she was finished, everyone else was still asleep.

She walked over and tapped Xosizi.

"Hey, Xosizi," she whispered.

He moaned and looked at her with one stalk-eye, "What?"

"It's time to go."

"Okay. 'Bye."

"'Bye? You're not coming with me?"

"I can't. I'm a big hotshot Alion commander and they need me here in

case the Tkpxzv come back."

Candace's heart dropped like a rock, "Xosizi, I need your help!" she

pleaded, "I can't do this by myself!"

Xosizi looked at her sadly," Aizyalia, I'm sorry. I truly am, but

this is one battle you must fight without me. I can't shirk my duty to make

you feel better, though I really wish I could."

"You're supposed to be my father, or something! You can't leave your

little girl all alone!"

"Warriors often must leave their families to defend their people."

"Xosizi, please!"

"The father often leaves to go fight, but the mother stays to watch

over the kid."

Candace and Xosizi turned and saw Candace the Candasaur standing

behind them.

The Candasaur continued, "I will go with you, Aizyalia."

Candace thought that Xosizi would be better for the situation she was

facing, but she was still relieved, "Candace, thank you!" she exclaimed.

The Candasaur shrugged, "The prophecy said I was your mom... however

that works."

"Feel better?" Xosizi asked.

"A little bit," Candace replied.

"She'll take better care of you than you think," he said.

"That's right," the Candasaur said, "I may be the same age as you and

have only the same amount of experience, but somehow I will take care of you."

Candace smiled, "Thanks."

She and Xosizi embraced, then she and the Candasaur went and got in

the raider craft. Candace the Candasaur took the controls since Aizyalia

didn't know how to fly, and the two of them were soon rocketing into the sky

and heading for Trisaria. Aizyalia looked out the cockpit one last time at

the departing planet.

"Goodbye, Xosizi. Thanks for everything," she whispered.

After reaching Trisaria, Phineas and Isabella were flown over the

battlefield in a Tkpxzv craft so they could assess the situation.

"As you can see, the power station is heavily guarded and filled with

booby traps and determined defenders," the Tkpxzv captain said. We can't bomb

the thing from the air because the power station is needed to run the

hydroelectric dam and power the city. Our vehicles can't reach the area due

to the uneven terrain, and our soldiers are getting killed by all the traps.

What do you propose we do, Captain Flynn?"

Phineas thought a bit, then smiled. He turned to Isabella.

"Hey, Isabella, you know what I thought of when I first saw these

little Candasaurs?"

"No," she said dully.

Phineas grinned devilishly, "Back to the city, I know what we're going

to do today!"

Getting to Trisaria wasn't hard. Even with the Tkpxzv Wing orbiting

the planet, the cloaking device on the Sphere Blaster was more then enough to

slip past and into the planet's atmosphere. Candace the Candasaur landed a

few miles outside Candasaurus City and turned the engine off.

"Okay..." she said to Candace of Earth, "Call them."

Aizyalia pulled out a radio and turned it to the frequency Xosizi had

given her. She spoke into it, "Hello? Recruits? This is Candace of Earth

speaking, over."

Stacy went rigid. The recruits around her began whispering excitedly.

Stacy picked up her radio, hand shaking, not daring to believe she had heard

correctly. She put it to her mouth.

"This is Stacy Hirano, commanding general of the Army of Trisaria...

over."

Candace of Earth furrowed her brow, "What?" she blubbered, "Stacy

Hirano? What planet am I on? What planet are you from, Stacy Hirano?"

"I'm from planet Earth..." Stacy said, amazed, "Candace Flynn."

"No way... this is impossible..." Candace Flynn replied.

"Not when Ferb builds a rocket, it's not," Stacy said.

"Ferb? Is he here, too?"

"No, but he came looking for you and I stowed away on his rocket. He

came here and left before I could sneak back on his rocket."

"So, you got stuck here?"

"Yep."

"And now you're leading my old recruits?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"We started an uprising to overthrow the Tkpxzv."

Candace looked at her radio strangely, "Why would you start an

uprising against the Tkpxzv?"

"I heard you were over on Tizilidai, so I needed to liberate this

planet to fly over there without getting blown up by the Tkpxzv fleet."

Candace thought it might've been easier just to steal a spacecraft and

run the blockade, but it didn't matter, "Well... where are you?"

"We're a few miles up the Red River from Candasaurus City. We're

defending the power station for a big hydroelectric dam that powers the city."

"Why?"

"We used it to cut the power to the city and force the Tkpxzv to come

out and attack our fortress. They can't bomb the position because they can't

destroy the power station, and their tanks can't get up here because ground is

too uneven. They're having to attack by having their soldiers run straight at

us."

"I'm guessing you've been able to hold them off, then?"

"So far, but I'm running out of tricks, and I'm worried that they're

eventually going to get past our defenses and kill us. We're way

outnumbered."

"Hm... well, I might have something that can help you. I'm in an

Alion spaceship right now, is there a spot in your fortress I can land in?"

"Yeah, there's a camp out behind the station toward the dam. You'll

see a bunch of tents and lean-tos out there. Land in the center, I'll be

waiting."

"Great! See you in five!" Candace turned to her Candasaur

counterpart, "Did you hear that?"

"Already moving," Candace of Tizilidai replied. She took off and flew

toward Candasaurus City, When she got close she turned up the river toward

the dam. She and Aizyalia saw the power station and the mess around it as

they got close.

"The Tkpxzv have that thing surrounded..." the Candasaur noted, "Your

friend must be an excellent general to have held out this long."

"Before today I didn't think she was a general at all," Candace of

Earth said.

"Guess she rose to the occasion."

"No kidding. Gosh, this is convenient. Stacy got me an army and a

fortress and a place to land all without me having to do anything. What a

great friend..."

"She is. She came all this way just to find you."

"Trag..."

They flew over the power station and over the campsite. Candace

turned off the cloaking device and the craft suddenly appeared, surprising

Tkpxzv and Candasaurs alike. Recruits darted aside as the Sphere Blaster

lowered slowly and landed in the middle of their camp. She turned the ship

off then she and Candace of Earth climbed down to the door and opened it up.

They both hopped off then looked up.

"CANDACE!"

Aizyalia turned and saw Stacy running at her with all her might and

wearing a smile bigger than once of Phineas and Ferb's creations, She also

smiled and dashed toward her friend.

"Stacy!" she cried.

The two of them charged at each other, smiling and with arms

outstretched. It looked like it was going to be the world's biggest hug.

Then Candace tripped over her own feet and fell on her face.

"Candace! Are you okay?" Stacy cried.

"Yeah, just embarrassed," she replied.

Stacy laughed and helped her up. The two friends embraced, trying not

to cry.

"I thought I'd never see you again..." Stacy said tearfully.

"I didn't think I'd ever see ANYONE from Earth again," Candace

replied, choking up, "But you came for me... you came all the way from Earth

just to find me..."

"Hey, that's what friends are for," Stacy said.

"Yeah... I guess so," Candace replied.

The two of them held each other and cried for several minutes.

Candace of Tizilidai finally got bored and decided to break it up.

"Awww... isn't this sweet?" she said obnoxiously.

Candace of Earth and Stacy both laughed and looked at the Candasaur,

"Who's this, Candace?" Stacy asked.

"This is Candace. She's a Candasaur who lives on Tizilidai. She flew

me here," Aizyalia said.

Stacy offered Candace of Tizilidai a hand, "Hey, Candace, I'm Stacy."

"I gathered as much," she said, shaking the proffered hand firmly.

Stacy turned back to Candace of Earth, "Did you say you had something

to help us out?"

Aizyalia smiled, "Yes, yes I did."

Candace and Stacy peered out from behind the barricade. The Tkpxzv

were organizing for another assault. They were surrounding the entire fort

with rubber rugs and putting on all sorts of improvised armor. They were also

wetting themselves down like before, and were also carrying knives.

"Boy, Stacy, you sure are forcing them to think," Candace said.

"Yeah..." Stacy said, "I'm almost worried now, though. If they're

carrying knives every Tkpxzv soldier that gets past the defenses will be even

matched with the Recruits..."

"Or, at least, they would have been..." Candace pointed out.

"Yeah... if you hadn't brought those swordspears," Stacy said,

grinning, "We've still got some tricks up our sleeves..."

"I wonder if it's enough..." Candace replied.

The two of them heard the Tkpxzv Captain shout the familiar order to

charge.

"We're about to find out," Stacy groaned, putting the radio to her

mouth, she said, "Get ready. On my signal, raise the spears."

All around them, Candasaurs tensed, gripping their new weapons and

preparing for yet another onslaught. The Tkpxzv shouted and ran forward. The

ground shook as thousands and thousands of plunger-feet raced towards the

fortress. The Tkpxzv had covered the entire mine field this time, so as they

charged the power station quickly became an island in a sea of Tkpxzv. As the

swarm approached, the rocks and catapults all fired as before. Some of the

Tkpxzv fell, but more survived because of the big shields and their armor. In

fact, more of them seemed to be getting through than weren't. As the horde

thundered toward them, Stacy glanced at Candace.

"Candace if this doesn't work, we're dead!" she said.

"Well, we'd better make it work, then!" Candace replied.

Stacy picked up her radio, "Raise spears!" she cried.

All around, the recruits, Candace and Stacy lifted the heavy steel

swordspears and pointed them to the sky. Stacy waited as the horde closed in.

Some of the smarter Tkpxzv noticed the coming trap and started backpedaling,

but most of them were being dragged forward by the rest of their army. When

the mass got close, Stacy gave the order.

"Spear wall!" she yelled.

The Candasaurs let all of their swordspears fall forward edge-first on

top of the Tkpxzv army. Candace and Stacy dropped theirs as well. Candace

saw blood spatter everywhere as the whole line of swords sliced down on the

unfortunate Tkpxzv, cutting through shields, armor, fur, and skin.

That was just the beginning, though. That killed most of the Tkpxzv

at the front, but most of them were still behind. Candace and Stacy gripped

their weapons tight and pushed hard forward as the full force of the Tkpxzv

army slammed straight into their spear points. Tons of them died, but

they kept coming. They climbed over the bodies of their comrades only to get

stabbed and fall the same way. They tried to weave around the spears only to

get sliced from the sides or stabbed by spear points further in, Candace

stood, straining and stabbing and slicing, doing all she could to keep the

horde back. Beside her she could see Stacy and the Candasaurs all doing the

same thing. She watched in mixed awe and horror and the mounds of Tkpxzv

bodies climbed higher and higher. She started to see that some of the Tkpxzv

further behind were slipping and falling in their brothers' blood, which was

running in rivers down the rubber-and yet they continued. For hours and hours

the Tkpxzv pushed against the spear wall, trying, Candace guessed, to tire the

recruits into submission.

And tired they were getting. It was all many of them could do just to

continue holding their spears. As the hours passed, some Tkpxzv did manage to

break though, but never in enough mass to do any damage-they were all quickly

slaughtered either by flamethrowers or by the Candasaurs at close range.

Finally, sometime in the afternoon, the Tkpxzv began retreating. They didn't

run-they were too exhausted, but they nevertheless turned around and began

walking away. The Candasaurs continued picking them off as they left,

flinging rocks and such at them. Stacy and Candace dropped their spears and

dropped on their backsides.

"Candace..." Stacy said, "I've never been so tired in all my life."

"I have," Candace groaned, "But only once."

All around them the Candasaurs groaned and collapsed onto their butts

as well.

"Hey Stacy, Candace, look!" a voice cried, coming from Stacy's radio.

"I don't want to look, Flynnya, I'm too tired," Stacy whined.

"I think you'll want to see this! Look out at the Tkpxzv!"

Stacy and Candace moaned as they stood and looked out over the

barricades to the Tkpxzv army. Candace noticed two things. One, there

weren't a whole lot of Tkpxzv left, and two, a whole lot of the ones that

were left were leaving-well, not leaving, DESERTING. The Tkpxzv Captain was

screaming at his soldiers apparently trying to get them to stay, but most of

them were walking off back down the hill. They'd had it. They were done.

Beaten. Crushed. They were tired of throwing their lives away and getting

nowhere, and nothing their stupid Captain could do or say was going to make

them make another futile run at that fort.

"They're leaving..." Candace said.

"Yeah... they're giving up," Stacy added, "They're giving up...

they're giving up! THEY'RE GIVING UP!" she yanked her radio out, "Everybody,

look! The Tkpxzv are leaving! They've quit! We've won! WE'VE WON!"

One by one the Recruits looked up and saw their enemies slowly routing

the field, and one by one they began shouting for joy until the entire

fortress erupted into a mighty cheer that echoed through the hills.

Everywhere, the recruits could be seen hugging, screaming, dancing, singing,

and just celebrating in general. Stacy and Candace whooped and embraced each

other. Candace the Candasaur fought her way through the madness and joined

them. In the midst of the celebration, a call came in on Stacy's radio.

"Stacy, we can hear cheering over here in the city, what's happening?"

"We did it!" Stacy screamed jubilantly into the radio. The Tkpxzv

are retreating! The battle's over! We've won!"

"No way, seriously? That's great! I'll spread the word and start a

rebellion here straightaway! There's so few Tkpxzv left that there's no way

they can still hold the city... at least, not if the bulk of their army's

quit..."

"Most of them are dead," Stacy said, "I think there's only a few

hundred left."

"Excellent! We'll have the city by nightfall! Jim, out!"

Stacy put her radio down and looked at Candace, "Thanks so much,

Candace, you really saved out butts with that spear wall."

"No kidding," Candace the Candasaur interjected, "Xosizi taught you

well."

Candace of Earth smiled, "Yes, yes he did."

"Who's Xosizi?" Stacy asked.

"Long story," Candace of Earth replied.

Everyone celebrated and chattered for a few minutes. They were all

laughing and carrying on when a sudden noise froze them all in their tracks.

BOOM.

Candace, Candace and Stacy paused and looked up, "What was that?" the

Candasaur asked.

BOOM.

Everyone looked out over the barricades and saw Tkpxzv coming back out

of the forest and surrounding the fortress again.

"Aw, man..." Candace of Earth whined, "They're coming back for more?"

"What's with the 'boom'?" Stacy wondered.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

"ROOOOOAAAAAR!"

Candace and Stacy looked at each other in confusion. Candace the

Candasaur's eyes bugged wide and she started shaking.

"Candace? What's wrong?" Candace of Earth asked.

"I-I-I know that roar."

Candace furrowed her brow, "Is it some creature from Tizilidai?"

She shook her head violently, "No... it's from Earth!"

Now Candace of Earth was really confused, "How can you know about it

then? You've never been there!"

"It's hardwired i-instinct C-Candace. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is our

natural enemy!"

Candace of Earth and Stacy looked at each other, then out at the

forest. A few more booming footsteps, and out of the trees thundered the

mighty prehistoric lizard in all it's glory... except it was mechanical.

Mechanical was good enough, though.

"T-T... T-T... T-T-T-REX!" Candace of Earth screamed.

The mechanized dinosaur roared and Candace and all the Candasaurs

screamed in terror. It lowered it's head and began charging toward them. The

Candasaurs, knowing their puny defenses wouldn't hold back THAT thing, turned

and began running for their lives. Candace of Earth did, too.

Stacy kept her cool slightly better. She started running, but she

grabbed her radio and barked some orders as well.

"Flynnya! Pulverizer Cannons! Buy us some time!"

Up on the power station's upper floors, Flynnya said, "We'll blast it

to bits!" She turned to her recruits, who had their guns pointed out the

windows, "You heard the lady, FIRE!"

The guns let off with a sound like a whirlwind and smashed into the

T-Rex's force field, which was quickly annihilated. The T-Rex was then

enveloped in fire and smoke as it got pounded by the mighty weapons.

"That's it!" Flynnya screamed, "Squash it, SQUASH IT!"

In the midst of the firestorm, Stacy called over her radio, "Triso!

Shut the minefield off! We have to abandon the fort! We're retreating over

the dam, the Tkpxzv have everything else surrounded!"

"Very well," Triso responded. A few seconds later, he reported that

he had done it. While he did, Flynnya's cannons ran out of ammunition and the

Pulverizer fire stopped. Everyone turned to look and see what had happened to

the T-Rex. A few seconds later the smoke cleared and-

It was still there.

Burned a little, but it was still there.

"Uh, oh," Flynnya said.

"You're gonna need more than gunpowder to save you from me,

Candasaurs!" the T-rex yelled in a familiar voice.

"Phineas!" Stacy and Candace cried together.

Phineas laughed then yelled, "Well, I'm getting hungry, and I think

some Candasaurs would really hit the spot right now! Let the feast begin!"

The Candasaur army screamed as one and ran for it. Stacy shouted into

her radio and ordered her troops to go out the back of the campsite and cross

the dam. The T-Rex began rushing up the hill as the Candasaurs fled for their

lives. The Tkpxzv followed after the T-Rex, which soon was in the fortress

and stomping all of the Candasaur's tiny defenses. It chased the Candasaurs

away from their fort, through their camp site and onto the dam wall. As they

began pouring onto the dam, Stacy looked up and saw something that made her

heart drop like a rock.

The Tkpxzv were massing on the other side of the dam. The Candasaurs

saw it and began slowing down as they got towards the middle of the dam.

Stacy looked back and saw the T-Rex and the rest of the Tkpxzv massing on the

side behind them. In short-

They were trapped.

The Tkpxzv assembled and began raising their lasers.

Stacy was at a loss, but the Candasaur's Red and White Thunder Goddess

jumped in and saved her.

"Everyone behind your shields!" Candace screamed.

The Candasaurs obeyed and ducked behind the shields Candace had

brought with her swordspears. The Tkpxzv opened fire and their lasers began

blasting the archaic weaponry. Luckily, the polished metal was enough to

deflect the laser blasts, and the Tkpxzv soon let up. There was a short

pause, then the T-Rex took a couple of thundering steps onto the dam and

spoke.

"Candasaurs! This is your last chance! Surrender now and we won't

kill you!" Phineas yelled.

The Recruits erupted into panicked chatter. Some were calling for

them to quit, others were saying to stand, but most of them just plain didn't

know what to do. Candace, Candace, and Stacy sat and bickered for a moment as

well, weighing their options.

"Enough! All of you!"

Everyone stopped and turned toward the voice. They saw Flynnya

standing on Triso's shoulder, speaking to the crowd.

"We've fought hard, and we've fought well, and I think we should stand

and fight!" she cried, "But you set Stacy in charge of this army, so I can't

tell you what to do, but if my opinion counts for anything, then listen to

this-the heavens have returned our Red and White Goddess of Thunder to us in

our darkest hour. Our prophets have long told us that she would save us at

this exact moment!"

The Candasaurs all muttered. Stacy and Candace the Candasaur looked

at Candace Flynn, who gulped.

"Now, if the heavens are our last hope, then Candace of Earth

represents that last hope! Do you agree?"

The crowd gave a mixed response, but more or less agreed because they

didn't have anyone else to save them. Flynnya turned to Candace.

"Candace of Earth, we have done all we can. Now, here, in our

darkest hour, when all hope has died, we turn to you to save us."

"Uh..." Candace said.

"Whatever you decide, we will do," Flynnya said. The Recruits

murmured in agreement.

Candace looked around at the Candasaurs, nervous, but realized that

she had come back to do exactly what they were asking her to do. She sighed

and lifted her head.

"People of Trisaria, we have a picture to draw, it can be good, it can

be bad, but we, not our enemies, will determine what that picture looks like.

This planet is ours, not theirs, and we will determine its destiny, NOT them."

The crowd murmured its approval. Candace raised her swordspear to the

sky.

"Today we will stand against the forces of evil! We may live, or we

may die, but we will have chosen our own destinies, not had them forced upon

us by our foes! Today, we will forge a new path, turn aside that hand of

fate, and save our world!"

The Candasaurs cheered. Stacy and Candace the Candasaur smiled at

their friend.

"Now, to war! For vengeance!" Candace yelled.

"For vengeance!" the Candasaurs cried.

"For family!"

"For family!"

"For friends!"

"For friends!"

"For freedom!"

"For freedom!"

"For Trisaria!"

"FOR TRISARIA!"

The Candasaurs erupted into a mighty cheer. Candace turned and looked

at the T-Rex.

"That doesn't look like surrender..." it said.

Candace pulled out her Spirit Rock, which she had tied around her

neck and looked at it.

"On Trisaria, when all hope has died, use the weapon the heavens give

you," she said quietly to herself. She tied the rock around her spear then

turned to Stacy.

"Stacy, I need you to go lead the back half of the army. Just try to

hold your position-that's all I need for now."

"Yes, ma'am!" Stacy said, turning and walking through the crowd.

Candace turned to the recruits on her side, "All, right, Recruits.

Get ready to make that spear wall again. There's a lot of us, and I think we

might just be able to knock that T-Rex off the dam if we hold firm. The

Candasaurs muttered in agreement.

"Hey, not getting any younger here!" the T-Rex called.

Candace turned from the Candasaurs and walked toward the T-Rex.

"Phineas! I have an answer for you!" she yelled.

The T-Rex looked down and did a double-take.

"Candace?" Phineas said in surprise, "How'd you get here?"

"Phineas, we will not surrender. We will stand and fight and we will

beat you!"

Phinasaurus Rex laughed mockingly, "Yeah, right! You think those

stupid little spears are gonna stop this beast?"

"This is YOUR last chance, Phineas! Turn around and leave us in

peace!"

"I'm not afraid of you Candace! You can't do anything to me!"

Candace shook her head and sighed, "Phineas it doesn't have to be this

way! Please, just let this go! You're my little brother! I don't want to

fight with you, at least, not like this!"

"I am NOT your brother, and YOU are not my sister!"

"Phineas! Okay, you hate me, but how does that justify hurting the

Candasaurs?"

"I'm just following orders, besides... they've made you their leader,

so they are, by extension, my enemies!"

Candace growled, then said, "Fine. If it's war you want it's war

you'll get."

"Ah... finally facing reality."

"Yeah... I guess so. I don't know how, Phineas, but I'm going to beat

you. I'm not going to let you hurt these Candasaurs."

Phineas laughed derisively, "Oh, Candace, you're great. Don't you get

it? You have nothing you can hurt me with. Those stupid little spears won't

do a thing! In fact, the only reason they worked in the first place was

because Stacy's electric mines knocked out the Tkpxzv force field! All we

have to do now is walk out onto the dam and our force fields will knock you

all off!"

Candace's eyes widened with horror. So did all the Candasaurs' who

could hear.

"Goodbye, Candace," Phineas said, "Tkpxzv, march!"

On both sides of the dam the Tkpxzv began marching toward their

doomed opponents. Phineas' T-Rex led the army on Candace's side of the dam.

Candace and the recruits stared at the oncoming death, completely out

of options. The recruits began muttering frantically. As she stared, Candace

felt a drop of water hit her face. She looked up and saw that it had started

to rain. She saw a flash of lightning a little ways off and heard the thunder

soon after. She looked at the oncoming mechanized monster, then at her

swordspear and her spirit rock.

"Use the weapon the heavens gave you, huh?" she sighed, "Well, here

goes nothing."

Candace lowered her spear, yelled, and charged. All kinds of thoughts

raced through her head as she approached the massive mechanized dinosaur, but

most of them were along the lines of, "This is really stupid and it won't

work." She eventually reached the T-Rex's force field, stabbed it with her

spear, and got flung back several dozen feet.

Phineas laughed, looking down at Candace from the cockpit, "Look at

her, Isabella, she's like a little ant!"

"Pretty much," Isabella agreed.

"See? What happened last time was just a fluke! This time she's

going down, down, down!"

"Maybe," Isabella replied.

Candace crash-landed in front of the front line of Candasaurs. Their

looks clearly told her that they thought she was an idiot, and even worse,

definitely not going to save them. Candace stood up again, shook herself off

and ran again at the oncoming T-Rex-she didn't know what else to do.

"Oh, Heavens, Mysterious Force, whatever you are!" she yelled, "You

told me to use the weapon you gave me to save this stupid planet, now for

cripes' sake HELP ME!"

She let out a war yell as she raised her spear to strike the force

field again.

Up in the cockpit, Phineas was laughing his butt off, and Isabella was

beginning to think her knight in shining armor was going to survive after all.

"She's being totally dumb!" Phineas chuckled, "She talks big, but she

sure can't deliver!"

"She's about to hit the force field again!" Isabella cried.

The two of them looked closely to watch Candace get flung back like

before. They saw her raise her spear, and-

Candace was suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light and felt a hot

electric charge surging through her body. She knew this feeling-she'd last

felt it back on prehistoric Earth when she'd first seen the Candasaurs.

She'd just been struck by lightning... right as her spear hit the

force field.

BOOM! The force field exploded and sent Candace flying back a second

time. She groaned and stood up.

"Wha-?" she blubbered.

Phineas and Isabella stared in shock.

"Well..." Phineas said, "That was lucky. Painful, but lucky."

"I get the feeling that wasn't luck, Phineas," Isabella said.

"Whatever, Isabella," he replied. He pushed the controls and ran at

Candace, lowering the T-Rex's head and opening it's mighty jaws.

Candace turned just in time to see the T-Rex's mouth open up to eat

her. She let out her signature squeal and prepared to get chomped in half.

"CHARGE!"

Candace looked behind her and saw Flynnya running toward her with a

swordspear and a huge phalanx of Candasaur recruits. Candace the Candasaur

(who was with them) grabbed Candace and together all of them rushed at the

T-Rex, meeting its huge head with several hundred spear points. The impact

was heavy, but so many Candasaurs were pushing against the dinosaur that it

got stopped in its tracks. It tried to raise its head, but many of the

swordspears had dug deep into its face, and the Candasaurs used their combined

strength to hold it down.

"Wow, Phineas, you were right... they are like ants... ants tearing

apart a spider!"

"Will you shut up!" Phineas yelled angrily... and frantically. He

pushed all sorts of buttons and knobs, trying desperately to escape the

Recruits' spikes. His situation worsened when even more angry Candasaurs began

swarming around the dinosaur's feet. A moment later, he and Isabella felt and

heard a horrible scraping. They looked at each other.

"They're pushing us over the side, huh?" Isabella said dully.

"Yes..." Phineas sighed, "Yes, they are."

Outside, over a thousand recruits had sunk their spears into Phineas'

T-Rex, and now they were all pushing it toward the edge of the dam. The T-Rex

struggled fiercely, but it was no use. There were just too many of them. It

gave one last sad roar as it got shoved over the edge and fell toward the

river below.

"Eject?" Isabella asked.

"Let's just crash," Phineas said dejectedly.

"Nah," Isabella replied, hitting the ejection button.

The two of them blasted out of the cockpit and their seats both

deployed parachutes and drifted slowly into the forest below.

Up above, the Candasaurs were completely euphoric. Wild cheering and

screaming rang through the hills. Candace was feeling pretty awesome, too.

It's not every day you take down a T-Rex.

The fight wasn't over, though. The Tkpxzv were surprised by Phineas'

demise, but they recovered and marched forward, planning to knock their

enemies off the dam with their force fields.

"Now what?" Flynnya asked, "I don't think we're going to get another

spontaneous lightning strike!"

Candace sighed in frustration, "I really don't know-"

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and saw Candace the

Candasaur.

"Candace, look at your Spirit Rock."

She did. It was glowing.

"It absorbed part of the lightning strike!" Candace of Earth exclaimed.

"The Heavens have sent you a weapon indeed," Candace of Tizilidai said.

Candace ran to the front of her Candasaurs, "Recruits! Spear wall!"

The Recruits formed up and faced the onrushing Tkpxzv.

"CHARGE!" Candace yelled. She and the Recruits surged forward,

rushing head-on at the Tkpxzv army. Candace ran harder than all of them,

getting a few feet out in front. As they closed on the Tkpxzv, Candace raised

her spear and stabbed it straight into the Tkpxzv force field. There was a

noise like thunder as the field shattered. Immediately afterward the Recruits

ran, yelling, straight into their horrified opponents and skewered them with

no trouble at all. A few Tkpxzv at the back had enough time to run for it,

but there weren't many... only a few dozen escaped.

The Candasaurs stopped and cheered madly, but Candace wasn't done.

She turned around and ran toward Stacy's side, which was slowly retreating to

avoid getting knocked into the gully by their enemies' force field. She

forced her way past all the recruits, came out near the front, surprising

Stacy, who was close by, and stabbed the force field with her spear,

destroying it.

Both the Candasaurs and the Tkpxzv stood frozen in shock.

"Get 'em!" Candace ordered.

The Candasaurs let out a war yell and ran forward. The Tkpxzv tried

to flee, but were quickly overtaken by the (anatomically faster) Candasaurs

and skewered like their brothers on the other side. Now Stacy's Candasaurs

began cheering madly. Candace stood, panting and looking over the

battlefield, not daring to believe they'd really just won. She glanced over

at Stacy, who looked as exhausted as she did. Stacy chuckled and gave her a

little half-smile.

"Wow, Candace. We killed a lot of aliens today," she said.

"It was for a good cause, though," Candace noted.

Stacy laughed tiredly, "I guess you really are the Red and White

Goddess of Thunder."

"Or something. I just asked the Mysterious Force for help and-"

"You got it. You smell like barbecue, by the way..."

"Thanks."

The two were quiet for a moment.

"So... now what?" Stacy asked.

"We take back the city, I guess," said Candace.

Stacy groaned, "More fighting? Gosh, I SO hate my life right now..."

Turned out retaking the city was pretty easy. By the time they

marched in, the Tkpxzv had abandoned it. According to Jim they knew that they

didn't have enough soldiers left to defend it if the Recruits attacked, so

they just got up and left. He hadn't even had to start his rebellion... the

taskmasters just gotten on their ships and flown away. Flynnya was reinstated as

President, Candace and Stacy were honored and the whole city threw a huge

party in front of the capitol building. Candace and Stacy had a blast, and

when it was all over, they and Candace the Candasaur were given two of the

finest hotel rooms Candasaurus City had to offer and they got a very good

night's sleep.


	3. Chapter 3: Plan to Shatter an Iron Fist

Chapter 3: A Plan to Shatter an Iron Fist

Demoted.

Hgtfpjsh said he was lucky, too.

Phineas and Isabella had managed to get back to the city and onto

Hgtfpjsh's ship before he left the planet. After that Phineas had reported to

the governor of Sirius. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty. At least he

wasn't alone, though. ALL the surviving Tkpxzv leaders that had been on

Trisaria were demoted, fired, or punished. Hgtfpjsh told Phineas that he had

probably gotten off easier than the others because he was more or less a

mercenary and the whole thing hadn't really been his fight, anyway. He,

Phineas, and Isabella now sat in a room together, flying toward the Sirius

star system and the governing planet. They had initially planned to continue

orbiting Trisaria, but the Tkpxzv Wing had fled when a swarm of Alion

spaceships had come from Tizilidai to destroy them. The Tkpxzv may have had

the firepower to win, but they would have had nowhere to land their craft or

repair them afterward, so they decided they had lost enough and abandoned the

system altogether.

"Guys... we got our butts kicked today," Phineas sighed.

"That's an understatement," Hgtfpjsh groaned, "This is a catastrophe!

Not only have we been beaten, but hundreds of thousands of our men died, we

lost the system anyway, and then we lost to a mob of CANDASAURS fighting with

SPEARS of all things... this is more than just a loss-this is a crushing

defeat that will echo all across our empire. Foreign powers will laugh at

us, slaves will lose their fear of their masters, and conquered peoples will

gain the courage to revolt. This, my friends, is a terrible day indeed."

"O, how the mighty have fallen..." Isabella muttered.

"Your attitude's not helping much, Isabella," Phineas growled.

She just looked at the floor and shrugged.

The three of them sat in silence for a time.

"You really should have left your sister back on Earth," Hgtfpjsh

said.

Phineas reply was inaudible, but Isabella was pretty sure she heard a

few choice swear words in it.

"I only hope that the Alions and Candasaurs don't pursue us to Sirius.

Our forces are weak after losing so many, and if they were to capture or

destroy the seat of government we would lose this entire sector, and the races

we have conquered would be inspired to rebel against us. In the worst case,

the loss of Sirius could result in the dissolution of our entire empire,

though I think our nation would at least survive..."

Phineas and Isabella didn't say anything. Hgtfpjsh finally sighed,

stood up and left the room. Phineas and Isabella continued to sit in silence.

Isabella pulled her bow out of her hair, untied it and started playing with

it.

"You really don't give a crap, do you?"

Isabella turned and looked at Phineas in mild surprise. She didn't

reply.

"You're tired of being here. You think I've gone off the deep end and

that I should just quit and go back to Earth, don't you?" Phineas continued.

Isabella was silent.

"You're not gonna answer me, are you?"

"Well... I don't know what to say."

"Oh, you know what to say, but you know I don't want to hear it."

"Well... yeah."

"Hey, Isabella?"

"What?"

"Since you don't want to help me, why don't you go back to Earth, or

just jump off a bridge."

Isabella blinked in shock and more than a little hurt. Phineas slid

off his chair and headed for the door, "I'm going to bed. My head hurts,"

Isabella watched until he closed the door behind him. A tear rolled

down her cheek.

"Oh, Phineas..." she whispered, "Don't you love me anymore? Because I

still love you..." She put her face in her hands and cried softly.

"The worst part of this is that I knew this was gonna happen,"

Isabella said to herself, "His hatred was consuming him, and I knew it was

only a matter of time before he lost his capacity to love... but I cared about

him too much, and I stood by him anyway..."

She sighed, tears still flowing, "I'm a sucker," she said, "A real

sucker."

She looked back toward the door, "I should leave him... but I just

can't do it. If he conquers, I'll conquer with him, and if he falls, I'll

fall with him... because I can't let him go... no matter how bad he gets."

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Uh... go away," Candace moaned.

"Five more minutes, Mom..." Stacy added.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

The two girls sat up in their beds and groaned.

BLAM!

The two of them snapped awake as the door to their room blasted off

its hinges and across the floor. Their heads swerved to look at the doorway.

"C-Candace?" Stacy asked, "What is that thing?"

"Xosizi!" Candace cried with delight.

"Aizyalia!" he answered. He swooped across the room and tackled

Candace back onto her bed, embracing her and eliciting a good laugh.

"You're gonna have to pay for that!" Flynnya yelled angrily, walking

through the door.

"'Morning, Candace, Stacy, how'd you sleep?" Candace the Candasaur

said, coming in after Flynnya.

"Better than I have in forever!" Candace cried, still laughing and

hugging Xosizi.

"What is that?" Stacy squealed, pointing at Xosizi.

"That's an Alion from Tizilidai," Triso said, also walking through the

door.

"Whoa. Weird," said Stacy.

"You said it," Flynnya agreed.

"Xosizi, what are you doing here?" Candace of Earth asked.

"We're here for a council of war!" he replied.

"In our hotel room?" Stacy asked.

"Yep," Flynnya responded.

Xosizi and Candace disentangled and everyone gathered around Stacy and

Candace's beds. Flynnya spoke:

"Last night I called the Alion Chief and told him we had overthrown

the Tkpxzv. He saw an opportunity and sent his spacecraft to throw the Tkpxzv

Wing out of the system once and for all. The Tkpxzv retreated without a

fight, which means the entire Epsilon Eridani system has been liberated!"

Everyone cheered and clapped at this news. It was good to be free.

Flynnya continued, "The Alion Chief, however, sent Xosizi to me this

morning because he fears that the Tkpxzv will return. Xosizi tells me that

his Chief wants to send a joint Alion-Candasaur force to capture the governing

planet orbiting the star Sirius. He believes that destroying the local seat

of Tkpxzv government will not only free this part of the galaxy, but also

inspire revolts, stoked by Alion agents, all across the Tkpxzv empire. This

would throw the entire Tkpxzv nation into disarray, ensuring that they won't

be able to strike the Epsilon Eridani system for years to come, if they can

even get back at all."

Flynnya's small audience murmured a bit before she continued.

"I have agreed to aid the Alions in this attack," Flynnya said, "But I

have come here to ask you, Candace, and you, Stacy, if you would be willing to

fight alongside us one last time."

Stacy looked hesitant, "I don't know, Flynnya. This really isn't our

fight. I came to get Candace, and now that I have her and the Tkpxzv are

gone, I don't see any reason not to go back to Earth."

Candace thought a bit, "I'll go," she said.

"You will?" Stacy asked, "Why?"

"I have friends back on Earth, Stacy, but I've made some friends out

here, too. If I can make sure that they'll be safe for good before I go home,

then I will."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Candace," Flynnya said, "However,

there's one more thing I think you should consider before you say that you'll

stay."

"What's that?"

"Boy and platypus, enter!" Flynnya shouted.

Candace's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she looked to the door

and saw none other than her younger brother Ferb and Perry the Platypus walk

in.

"Ferb? Perry?" Candace asked in disbelief.

"Hello, Candace," Ferb said.

Perry chattered a greeting.

Candace jumped off her bed and ran at them, scooping the two of them

up into a monster hug.

"I can't believe it!" she cried, "I can't believe you found me!"

"It's-URF!-good to see you, too, Candace," Ferb said, "Mother is very

worried about you, and she wants you home."

Candace paused, then sighed, "Ferb, I really want to go, but there's

one more thing I have to do. Can you wait for me?"

"I'm afraid not, actually. We received a call from Perry's superiors

today informing us that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has dethroned the mayor of Danville

and is quickly taking over the Tri-State Area. They need Perry back on Earth

to defeat him and restore order."

"I see..." Candace said strangely.

Ferb turned to Stacy, "Stacy, your mother is also calling for you.

She says you'll be grounded for a month if you don't return home immediately.

I would also like to thank you for stowing away on my ship without

permission."

Stacy grinned sheepishly.

Candace looked over at Flynnya, "Flynnya, if I stay and help you, will

you give me a ship to fly back home?"

"Of course," she replied.

"Good," she turned back to Ferb, "Thank you so much for coming for me,

Ferb, but I can't leave these people yet."

"I understand," he replied, "Perhaps the stowaway would like another

free ride?"

Stacy laughed nervously, then said, "Well... I came to get Candace,

and I'm not going home without her, so I guess I'm heading for Sirius, too!"

"Perry and I also came to get Candace, but we're willing to leave

without our quarry, aren't we?"

"Yeah, but it's just because the Tri-State Area's being destroyed."

Ferb sighed and shook his head, "Very well. Our trip was pointless,

but at least we know where you two are now..."

"It wasn't pointless!" Candace said, "You brought Stacy to Trisaria!

She started the uprising that saved the planet and made it so I could leave!"

"Stacy brought herself," Ferb growled.

Perry chattered in agreement.

"Can we talk about something else?" Stacy asked.

"All right, then. Sister, stowaway..." Ferb began, glaring at Stacy.

Stacy giggled nervously again.

"... I bid you farewell. I will tell your parents of your whereabouts

and look forward to seeing you soon."

"Okay..." Candace said.

"Take care," Ferb said, waving.

Perry growled, also waving.

"'Bye! See you soon!" Candace replied.

Ferb and Perry left, and the room's attention turned back to Flynnya.

"So... you guys ready to plan an interstellar invasion?" Flynnya

asked.

"I'm hungry, can we get breakfast first?" Stacy asked.


	4. Chapter 4: The Duel for Sirius

Chapter 4: The Duel for Sirius

The plan was pretty simple. The Alion spies reported that there were

hardly any Tkpxzv soldiers protecting Sirius' governing planet-if the Alions

and Candasaurs could land any substantial number of troops on the planet they

could conquer it. The only real defense the Tkpxzv had was the Alpha

Centaurian Guard-the force of spacecraft that had blockaded the Epsilon

Eridani system plus some defensive ships that always patrolled the area. This

force was formidable, but it was outnumbered and outskilled by the Alion

spacecraft, so a Tkpxzv victory seemed very unlikely. Though the Alions could

probably do the job themselves, Flynnya prepared a large fleet of cargo ships

loaded with explosives (normally used for peaceful purposes) to send with

them. Before the end of the day the combined Alion-Candasaur force was flying

away from the Epsilon Eridani system and to the Sirius system with Candace,

Candace, Stacy, Flynnya, Xosizi, and the Alion Chief all in tow.

It wasn't long before the Tkpxzv detected them moving toward their

seat of government. They quickly alerted their governor, who slammed his head

down on his desk and kept it there for a long time. He knew he was done. It

was all over. He knew it would take a miracle to save Sirius in its current

situation. He eventually lifted his head up, sighing. He reached for his

communicator, deciding he was going to order a feast to enjoy his last dinner

as governor, when a sudden thought hit him. It didn't make him any happier,

but it did give him a very faint hope... VERY faint. He stood up and went to

his video conference room. He had some bargaining to do.

Flynnya was sitting in the pilot's chair in one of her cargo rockets

when she got a call on her ship's video communicator. She put it through and

saw the Tkpxzv governor looking back at her.

She didn't recognize him, though.

"Who the heck are you, Tkpxzv?" she asked gruffly.

"I am the governor of Sirius, and this sector of the galaxy," he

replied.

"Not for long, you're not. We're coming to kick your butt!"

"I know, and we don't have the firepower to defeat you."

"So... you calling 'cause you want to give up now and save yourself

the trouble?"

"No, I'm calling because my superiors in government have asked me to

make you a deal."

"Yeah? What kind of deal?"

"Instead of a battle, they wish to have a duel."

"A duel? What do you mean?"

"They would like you and the Alions to choose two champions to

represent your races to duel against two champions representing our race."

"Okay... why?"

"The winner of the duel will be counted as the winner of the battle."

"But me and the Alions have a better chance of winning in a battle

between our armies and our fleets, so why would I agree to this?"

"You can take Sirius from us, that is true, but my superiors are

offering you THREE governing star systems if you win this duel. However, if

you lose, you sign a truce with us and return to your own system."

"So basically... you're raising the stakes so you'll get a chance to

have a fair fight, is that what I'm hearing?"

"Yes."

Flynnya scratched her chin and thought a bit, "Three star systems... I

like the sound of that. Let me call the Alion Chief and I'll get back to you

with our response."

"Very well."

"Yes... indeed it is."

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Xosizi roared.

"Yeah, it is," Candace agreed.

"Flynnya is young, and I can see her taking a gamble like this, but

the Chief? There's no need! They've allowed to allure of power to sway them

into giving our foes a chance to claim a victory from a nearly inevitable

defeat!"

Candace, Xosizi and Stacy were on a Candasaur rocket. Candace the

Candasaur was flying it.

"Maybe we should have just gone back to Earth... we stayed to save

them, not help them build an empire," Stacy said.

"And the worst part is, they made you and me their champions!" Xosizi

shouted, pointing to Candace.

"I'll bet that offer's not even real," Candace added, "The governor

probably lied to save himself.

He had. His superiors had given him no orders, but the Alions and

Candasaurs had at least taken his bait, and now he had a chance to survive.

He now called up his champions to prepare them for the fight.

He grabbed his communicator, "Hgtfpjsh, put Mr. Flynn and his friend

on the line."

"I can't believe he's giving me another chance," Phineas said

afterward.

"Three strikes?" Isabella said.

"I guess... but this is the one where I strike out if I blow it... I

wonder who I'll be facing?"

"Well... if it's the Alions and the Candasaurs... there'll probably be

one champion for each race. The Alions will pick one of their best warriors,

and the Candasaurs will probably pick-"

Isabella stopped. She and Phineas looked at each other.

"Candace," they said together.

They were quiet for a second, then Phineas smiled darkly.

"Good. It's time for some sweet revenge," he said.

"I'd try to talk you out of it, but I think we're basically trapped at

this point," she replied.

"I wouldn't listen to you anyway. Dang, I hate her..."

Isabella sighed mournfully.

"Well... we've got some work to do if we want to win. I know what

we're gonna do today!"

"Sacrilege..." Isabella groaned.

The duel was taking place on the Tkpxzv command craft, since it was

the only craft with a room big enough for a fight with an audience. Flynnya,

the Alion Chief, Candace, Stacy, Candace the Candasaur, Xosizi, and a whole

lot of random Alions and Candasaurs gathered on one side of the room, while

the Tkpxzv gathered on the other side, leaving a large space between the two

groups for the duel to take place in. The Tkpxzv governor came forth.

"Alions! Candasaurs! Send out your champions!"

Candace and a very unhappy Xosizi emerged from the crowd.

"Who is your first?" the governor asked.

"Xosizi... the Alion," Flynnya called.

Xosizi stepped forward. He had chosen simple weapons for his fight: a

sword and shield. He chose not to wear armor, preferring to use speed to defeat

his adversary.

"Send out your champion, * $#%&#!" Xosizi spat.

"Come forth, champion!" the Governor called.

Out from the Tkpxzv horde stepped a short, robot-looking thing with a

long nose. Candace stared at it for a moment, then her eyes went wide with

terror.

"Xosizi, it's Phineas!" Candace cried, "He's wearing a mini-version of

a suit he made earlier this Summer that gave him super powers!"

"Super powers?" Xosizi said, "This should be interesting..."

"Be careful! That suit is really, really dangerous!" she yelled.

"Will do, Aizyalia," Xosizi said, then turned to the Governor,

"Where's his second?"

"Come out, young Isabella," the Governor said.

Isabella emerged. She wasn't wearing a suit. All she had was a

little laser pistol. Candace noted, however, that she was the only one there

with a gun, meaning she would still be pretty dangerous.

Xosizi and Phineas walked to the center of the room and faced each

other. The Governor pulled out a horn.

"On my signal, this duel with begin!" he cried. He raised the horn to

his mouth.

TOOOOOT!

Phineas opened the fight by throwing a heavy punch at Xosizi. Xosizi

however, opened the fight by leaping back several feet and assuming a

defensive stance, successfully dodging the blow. Phineas charged at Xosizi

with his suit-enhanced speed and flung a short series of punches at him.

Xosizi was surprised by his speed and barely avoided the blows. He

continued to retreat as Phineas threw punch after punch after punch. Phineas

eventually backed him into a corner and raised his fist.

"One down, Candace to go," he said triumphantly, and threw his punch.

"Xosizi!" Candace yelled-but she didn't need to. Xosizi caught

Phineas' fist and used it and his wings to jump up and flip over Phineas'

head. As he sailed over, he swung his sword into the back of

Phineas' skull, causing him to keel forward into the wall. He then landed

behind Phineas, whirled around and knocked his legs out from under him. He

then leapt onto his back with his sword pointed down and stabbed hard,

smashing him to the floor.

But Phineas wasn't dead. He wasn't really even hurt. None of the

blows penetrated his suit... though it was pretty clear that if he hadn't had

the suit Xosizi would have killed him... and pretty easily at that. In short,

Phineas didn't die.

He was just totally humiliated.

He growled angrily and flung himself back, sending Xosizi flying

across the room. Xosizi managed to stop himself and hover in midair. Phineas

turned on his suit's rocket boosters and flew at Xosizi, who didn't know the

thing could fly and was unable to do more than raise his sword to block

before Phineas tackled him. Phineas drove Xosizi straight into the wall and

crushed his body against it with the full force of his rockets. Phineas

pulled back and started to let his opponent fall, but then gave him a brutal

uppercut with his suit's fist. Xosizi flew up, then came down, and Phineas

hit him again. Xosizi went up, then down, then got hit again. Candace

watched in agony as her father from another planet got pummeled again, came

down...

And swung his sword down on Phineas' head, hard.

The swing sent Phineas crashing to the ground. Xosizi attempted to

swoop down toward the middle of the battlefield, but collapsed in midair and

crash-landed to the floor. He attempted to rise, then fell again.

"NOOOO!" Candace yelled. She dashed out to Xosizi's crumpled form as

Phineas stood up and the Tkpxzv cheered.

"Triangle-headed brat!" Stacy roared over the noise, "There's no way

you would've beat him without that suit!"

"Shut up, you're just mad that your stupid alien lost!" Phineas

retorted. He stomped over to Candace, who was trying to comfort Xosizi, and

kicked the Alion across the room, where he slammed into a wall and fell to

the floor. Cries of dismay rose from the Candasaur/Alion alliance, more

cheers were heard from the Tkpxzv, and Phineas laughed. Isabella watched

Phineas glorying in his cruelty and couldn't decide whether she wanted to cry

or to throw up.

Candace, however, was already in tears. She looked over at the crowd

gathering around her fallen father and almost couldn't bear it. She looked

back at her brother standing over her, laughing at the terrible thing he'd

just done. As she stared at him through her tears, she started to notice two

things. One, was that their was one part of Phineas' body that was exposed,

the space under his "chin", and two, that she really, really, REALLY wanted to

hit it. Time slowed as Phineas continued to laugh and Candace's blood began

to boil she clenched her fist, drew it back, and clocked Phineas straight in

the underside of his chin, bringing an abrupt end to his insane laughter and

knocking him to the ground. The room went quiet as everyone returned to

watching the fight. Phineas stood up, rubbed his injured non-chin and faced

his sister.

"Begin... round two," he growled.

He rocketed forward at Candace, but she anticipated his move and

ducked.

"Candace!" Stacy yelled. She slid Candace's swordspear to her across

the floor. Candace ran to pick it up, but Phineas jumped up and slammed down

on top of her, causing her to smash to the floor. She tasted blood as she

looked up and saw Phineas aiming his fist for her face.

You know how when you're about to die your life flashes before your

eyes? This happened to Candace at this point. As she viewed everything she'd

done, her prophecy (among everything else) came back to her again and she

realized this was the time where she was supposed to use the weapon Xosizi had

given to her, and what had he given her? He'd taught her to fight. Things

like BWCTFADR and swordspear lessons and a lot of other Alion warrior stuff

ran through her head like a derailed train. As she remember her training she

calmed down, relaxed and focused on the fighting, primarily on Phineas' fist.

Time slowed down even more as she threw her arm forward as Phineas began to

punch, catching his fist and pushing it slightly to the side as it flew. This

caused it to go off course and smash into his big, triangle-shaped nose. It

also caused him to fly back and land on his butt.

All this in the course of about half a second.

Candace thanked the Mysterious Force for giving her healthy adrenaline

glands and lunged for her swordspear. She snagged it and whirled around to

face Phineas, who was still trying to recover from punching himself in his own

face. He shook himself, growled and ran at her. As he did, she danced

backwards and swung her spear into his side. This forced him off course and

sent him stumbling wildly across the room. Candace followed him and swung her

spear down on top of him while he was still off balance, sending him sprawling

to the floor. He growled and flung himself back to his feet, knocking the

swordspear off his back. He turned and rocketed at Candace. She had,

however, been focused on him, as she had been taught, and had again anticipated

the move. She turned and stepped aside as he began to rocket. He didn't have

time to change course and ended up rocketing into the back of her swordspear.

This spun Candace around a bit, but Phineas hit the bar so hard it tore his

helmet off and nearly gave him a concussion. He crashed, sat up, and groaned,

dazed and confused. Candace shook off her own dizziness and started walking

toward him.

CHOOM! CHOOM!

"Ah!" Candace cried, grabbing her sides and cringing.

"Don't hurt him!" Isabella yelled, laser gun smoking.

"Hey! She can't do that! Your champion isn't down yet!" Flynnya

roared.

"Isabella! Step aside!" the Tkpxzv governor ordered.

"I won't!" Isabella yelled, "I won't let you hurt him, Candace, and if

I have to kill you to save him, I will!"

Candace gritted her teeth in pain and looked up at Isabella, who was

re-aiming the gun at her.

"Sorry, Candace. I gotta do what I-"

BAM!

Isabella yelped and fell on her side. Someone had thrown Xosizi's

shield at her. Before she could get up, Stacy jumped on top of her, pinning

her to ground and yanking the gun from her hand.

"And I won't let you hurt Candace!" Stacy growled.

"She can't do that, either!" the Tkpxzv governor roared, "Flynnya,

control your soldiers!"

"All Stacy did was stop YOUR soldier from breaking the rules we agreed

on!" Flynnya snapped back.

"Governor, this behavior is very unfitting a statesman such as

yourself," the Alion chief said, emerging from the audience, "As your second

appears to have violated our agreement, I'm afraid I will have to order my

fleet to attack yours conventionally... I'm sure we can take the other two

star systems easily enough anyway."

The governor's multiple eyes went wide with terror, "Um... that won't

be necessary. Soldiers! Restrain Isabella!"

Stacy got off and Isabella squealed and struggled as two Tkpxzv came

up behind her and wrapped her in their rope-like arms.

"That's not enough, Governor," the Alion chief continued, "Your second

has caused substantial injury to my second by her illegal actions. For this

duel to continue, something must be done to level the field."

"Meaning?" the Governor replied.

"Your second must be disqualified."

"What? No!" Isabella cried.

"What? No!" the Governor cried.

"Then I'll call my Sphere Blasters and begin the assault on Sirius,"

said the Alion Chief.

The Governor growled fiercely, then said, "Fine. Isabella is

disqualified. The duel will continue between your second and Phineas only,

winner take all."

"No! Please! If he loses he'll die!" Isabella yelled.

"That's better," the Alion Chief replied, ignoring Isabella.

By now Candace and Phineas had both recovered. Candace was definitely

hurt, but Isabella had somehow managed not to hit anything vital. Phineas had

a nasty bump on his head, but he too was still able to continue. The two now

faced each other.

"Champions! Are you prepared to resume the duel?" the Governor asked.

"Trag!" Candace replied.

"Yeah," Phineas growled.

The governor pulled his horn back out, raised it to his mouth, and-

"No! Wait! I'll fight for him! Phineas, switch with-!" Isabella

called.

"Isabella, SHUT IT!" Phineas snapped, turning and glaring at her.

Isabella froze in mid-sentence, then crumpled and started weeping into

to arms of her Tkpxzv captors.

He turned back to a rather shocked-looking Candace, "I can beat her,

even if you think I can't!" he shouted, "Today, vengeance is mine."

"Wow, Phineas," Candace said coldly, "You only have one friend left in

the entire universe... and that's the way you treat her. I can't believe

she's still willing to stick up for you."

"She made an oath! She knew what she was signing up for! It's her

problem not-!"

"Hey, Phineas?"

"What?"

"Let's go. I'm beginning to think I might enjoy kicking your butt as

much as you enjoy kicking mine."

Phineas laughed wickedly and turned to the Governor, "Blow that horn!"

TOOT!

Phineas rocketed at Candace again, but she sidestepped it and he flew

on past. Candace turned and watched as he landed on the other side of the

room, spear raised. She had a plan.

Phineas reached down, pulled a chunk of rock out of the floor and

threw it at her. Candace calmly sidestepped and avoided it. Phineas tried

this a couple more times, then gave up and attempted another rocket tackle.

That was a mistake.

Candace saw him setting up to rocket off, but she didn't sidestep this

time. Instead, she faced him head on and pointed her swordspear directly

at him. Phineas didn't have time to react to the maneuver before he fired.

He blasted forward straight at Candace-

And straight into her swordspear.

Hitting her blade at that speed normally would have cut him in half,

but the suit saved him by getting itself cut in half instead. To make matters

worse, as Phineas traveled down the long length of the spear, he also smacked

into Candace's Spirit Rock, which she had made sure to charge before the

fight. This zapped him wonderfully. By the time he hit Candace's shoulder

(giving her a good bruise), he was both suit-less and fried. He flipped over

his sister's shoulder and landed hard on the floor on his back.

"Uh..." he groaned, dazedly. He snapped back to reality as he felt

the cold blade of Candace's swordspear against his throat.

"Uh, oh..." he said shakily.

The Candasaur/Alion group cheered. The Tkpxzv gasped. Isabella

looked up and started screaming and struggling frantically.

"No! Stop!" she cried.

"Uh... Candace?" Phineas said meekly.

"So, Phineas, vengeance is yours, huh?" Candace said coolly.

"Erm..." he replied badly.

"Let's talk about this, _little brother_..." Candace said darkly, "Let's

talk about 'vengeance.'"

"Candace you've won, just let him go!" Isabella cried.

"For years I lived in your shadow," Candace said quietly, "For years

Mom had no idea... what you were up to."

Phineas gulped.

"Then she finally found out... and you decided to take it out on me...

and I admit, you had good reason to."

"So... does that mean you forgive me?" Phineas asked pathetically.

Candace laughed derisively, "But you took it too far... heh heh...

let's talk about 'vengeance,' little brother... let's talk about grudges,

too..."

"Candace, stop!" Isabella yelled uselessly.

"Here's my grudge, Phineas..." Candace continued, teeth clenched, "You

trapped my mother. You trapped my father. You trapped my brother. You kept

them locked up, when you could have helped them. You used them to play your

selfish little game... to get back at me. You broke my mother's heart with

your cruelty. You tried to kill me to get to her... but all that wasn't

enough for you."

Candace paused, glaring down at her defeated brother.

"After that you trapped me and tried to make me your slave. You

helped an evil empire conquer a helpless alien race. Then you tried to murder

me by throwing me off a cliff. After that you came to destroy the race that

protected me from you. Then you tried to kill me with a T-rex, and now you've

tried to kill me here..."

Phineas stared up at his sister, clearly terrified now. He knew this

wasn't going to end well.

"But there's one thing you did, worse than all the others, Phineas,"

Candace said, tears forming in her eyes, "The Alion that you fought earlier was

the one who saved me from the Tkpxzv spacecraft. He was the one who carried

me away from the first fight on Trisaria. He brought me to his home on his

planet. He fed me. He gave me a place to sleep. He took me into his culture

as his own daughter. He taught me so many things about myself that I never

would have learned on my own. His training and his teaching have saved me

from you over and over again. He was like a father to me, little brother, and

today..." Candace was crying full on now, but laughing slightly under her

breath, "…you killed him."

"Candace... please..." Phineas said.

"So, Phineas... let's talk about vengeance..." Candace said softly,

"Today, Phineas, vengeance is not yours... you've gotten enough of that."

"Candace, he's your brother! Please, don't!" Isabella begged.

"Today, Phineas," Candace growled, raising her swordspear, blade

turned toward Phineas' throat, "Vengeance... is MINE!"

Phineas screamed as she yelled and swung the sword down at his neck.

"NOOOOOOO!" Isabella screeched.

THUNK!

Isabella bawled into the Tkpxzv's arms. She couldn't bear to look up

at her slain champion, and yet she still did for some reason.

She stopped crying abruptly.

Phineas was staring at Candace in complete terror and a quite a lot of

shock.

Candace had driven the blade into the floor above his head.

"You may be a murderer, Phineas, but I'm not. You're still my little

brother, so I'll spare you... this time."

Everyone stared raptly at Candace, who dropped her spear, picked

Phineas up by the scruff of his shirt, and pulled him up face-to-face with

her.

"I don't want things to be this way between us, Phineas, but if you

refuse to forgive me, I have to accept that... but I swear, if you EVER, come

after me, my friends, my family, the Alions, or the Candasaurs EVER again,

Isabella won't be crying into Tkpxzv ropes... she'll be crying into your cold,

dead body."

Phineas gulped again.

Candace threw him several feet and he crashed on his side, grunting.

She turned and the crowd parted as she ran over to the dying Xosizi.

Phineas stared stupidly at her for a moment until he was yanked up

from behind and pulled face-to-face with the Tkpxzv Governor.

"You... worthless... spit! You will pay most dearly for your

incompetence!"

"Put him down, he did his best!" Isabella yelled.

"Silence!" the Governor roared.

"Seems you've lost, Governor. I believe you owe me and the Candasaurs

three star systems," the Alion Chief said.

"Never! Ship!"

"Yes?" his spacecraft replied.

"Initiate self-destruct! Blow up Flynnya and the Alion slime with

it!"

"As you wish," the ship replied.

Explosions started reverberating all throughout the ship, causing the

whole thing to shake. Several explosions hit the duel room, hitting soldiers

on both sides.

"Back to the rockets!" Flynnya screamed.

"Return to your Sphere Blasters!" the Chief yelled. He pulled out his

radio, "This is Alion Chief. Begin assault on the Sirius system!"

Everyone from all sides began fleeing the room. Candace picked up

Xosizi and Stacy grabbed Candace's spear. The two ran from the room with the

rest of the horde. Over on the other side Phineas was being dragged off

screaming by the governor and his bodyguards. The Tkpxzv restraining Isabella

panicked and dropped her. She tried to push through the Tkpxzv, screaming for

Phineas but unable to reach him. As she fought to get forward, she felt a

heavy rope on her shoulder. She turned and looked up.

"Hgtfpjsh!" she cried, "Where is he taking Phineas?"

"Most likely... with how mad the Governor is and with how much he's

lost... he's probably going to have him tortured and killed."

Isabella's eyes went wide with fright, "Hgtfpjsh, please! We have to

save him!"

Hgtfpjsh nodded, "I agree, Shmpthrlf. Though young Phineas has caused

much trouble for my people, I don't believe he was the cause of their

downfall. I believe the Hand of Fate chose him and his sister to upset the

balance of power in the galaxy. Perhaps the day of the Tkpxzv empire is at an

end..."

"Will you help me?"

"Yes, Shmpthrlf. Come, we must move quickly."

"Why? Why did you and the Alion Chief have to do this, Flynnya?"

Candace yelled.

The corridors were quickly filling with smoke and flames from the

explosions by now. Candasaurs and Alions were coughing and gagging as they

ran, hoping to reach their spaceships before being either burned or

suffocated.

"I thought if we had more systems it would help us beat them later!"

Flynnya replied. She was sobbing, "And I didn't think anyone could beat

Xosizi!"

"Well guess what? They did! And now he's dying!"

"I know, I'm so sorry! I wish I could change what I did, but it's-!"

"Forgive her, Candace..." Xosizi's voice said weakly.

"Xosizi!" Candace cried, glancing over her shoulder to look at the

Alion she was carrying, "Hang in there! We're going to get you a doctor!"

"Candace... I'm broken... I'll die too soon..."

"No way! We're going to-!"

"Candace, listen to me... thank you... for sparing your brother."

"What? Why?"

"He is only a child... he did not deserve death."

"But he's hurt so many people!"

"HE'S hurting. He's in over his head. Besides... he has done much

good, as well... more than he has done bad."

"Are you delirious from getting hurt or something?"

Xosizi chuckled a little, "Candace... if you see your brother again...

tell him... I forgive him for all that he has done to me... even causing my

death."

"Why?"

"Because if it wasn't for him... I never would have met you."

Candace's eyes widened at this revelation.

"Because of you... and because of him... I go to the heavens in

peace... knowing... that my people are both safe... and free... from the

Tkpxzv empire... and knowing... that the heavens... have heard my prayers."

Candace's eyes welled up with tears. She tried to tell herself it was

the smoke she was running through, but she knew better.

"Candace... I watched you fight your brother today. I was proud that

you fought so well... but my proudest moment was when you spared his life."

"Why is that?" Candace choked.

"Because you learned the last... and greatest lesson of the warrior...

Candace. A warrior may gain all the skills... and be braver than brave, and

stronger than strong, and yet he will be nothing until he understands the most

important trait of the warrior."

"Which is?"

"Love, Candace. Compassion. Mercy. A true warrior is not a

destroyer, Candace."

"He's a protector..." Candace said, "And a defender."

"Trag. He is a warrior not because he enjoys killing his enemies...

but because he loves his friends and his family... and he will not allow

others to hurt them."

"I guess a warrior's nothing without someone to defend..."

"Even if it's only you, but trag... a warrior is revered by his people

because he protects them... and he is respected by his enemies because of his

compassion, even for them."

The two were quiet a moment as they continued running through the

halls. The crowd was starting to thin out as other soldiers began going down

other hallways to reach their ships.

"Candace?" Xosizi said.

"Yes?" she replied.

"If you don't remember anything else I taught you... remember... to

always love your fellow beings... especially your brother."

"Okay."

"Forgive him... love him... my daughter... my brave Aizyalia."

"Okay."

Candace turned down a hall and continued to run.

"Xosizi?" she asked.

She waited.

"Xosizi?" she asked again, louder.

Still nothing.

"Xosizi!" Candace cried, "Xosizi!"

She felt a claw on her shoulder. She turned and saw Candace the

Candasaur next to her.

"He's gone... Candace," she said softly.

Candace of Earth didn't scream or yell or cry out. She had known he

was dead without Candace telling her... but it didn't make it any easier to

accept. She sobbed softly and let her tears flow. She felt a hand on her

other shoulder. She looked up and saw Stacy.

"I'm sorry, Candace," she said.

Candace looked at the ground and sobbed some more.

"You really loved him, didn't you?" Stacy asked.

Candace nodded slowly.

"I think he really loved you, too," she continued.

Candace kept crying.

"I didn't know him that well... but he seemed like a really good guy,"

Candace nodded slowly again.

"He was brave. He was honest. He was strong. He was wise. He loved

his friends, he loved his people, but most of all, he loved you, Candace."

Candace nodded again, tears still running down her face.

"He was my friend," Flynnya suddenly said. All eyes turned to her.

"He was a true warrior..." she continued, also in tears, "One of the

greatest that ever lived. He was a defender... and a protector," strength

surged in Flynnya's voice, "I know the Heavens have taken his spirit, and that

he now resides with the great and noble heroes of all the past ages. He'll be

with us always... watching over us all from his halls of glory above."

Everyone was quiet again. The group was very thin now. Only

Candasaurs and humans remained. They reached an intersection. Flynnya and

most of the remaining Candasaurs turned to Candace and her group.

"We're down this hall. Meet you in space," Flynnya said.

"We will," Candace the Candasaur said.

Suddenly, a big chunk of burning ceiling crashed down between them,

reminding them that they were still on a self-destructing Tkpxzv command

craft.

"Hurry," Flynnya added, then took off down the hall with her crew.

Candace's group took the other hall.

"Goodbye... Daddy," Candace whispered.

Hgtfpjsh and Isabella cracked the door and looked into the room. It

wasn't pretty. Phineas was covered in cuts and bruises from being literally

thrown around the room.

"OUR NATION IS RUINED BECAUSE OF YOU!" the Governor roared at him.

"I can only... do what... I can... do..." Phineas sobbed.

"Guards!" the Governor yelled.

One of the bodyguards picked Phineas up by his foot.

"No, please... not a-GACK!"

The guard had taken Phineas and swung him, face-first into the wall.

He did it again, and again, and again, then threw him back into a heap on the

floor.

"You ready, Shmpthrlf?" Hgtfpjsh asked.

Isabella was livid, her teeth tightly clenched, "Yes."

"Good. Keep them busy and I'll-"

Phineas got slammed again and Isabella screamed and charged into the

room, blasting away with the laser she'd had earlier.

The Governor and his cronies were caught completely off guard, and she

had blasted all five guards and the Governor at least once each before they

started reaching for their own weapons. She went and dived behind what

appeared to be a desk and fired madly from behind her cover. Some of the

guards started coming around to get her. As they were firing at her position,

the Governor looked over at the other side of the room.

"Hey, HEY! Get back here! Guards! She's a decoy! Get Hgtfpjsh,

he's stealing Phineas!"

But it was too late. Hgtfpjsh had already carried Phineas out the

door. The guards followed after him. The Governor started to follow too, but

stopped and fell to his knees when he suddenly got burned on his side. He

looked up in horror and remembered Isabella was still there with her laser

gun.

He, however, was unarmed.

"This one's for me!" Isabella shouted, blasting his eyes and

sending him reeling back.

"This one's for the Fireside girls!" she yelled, shooting his gut. He

screeched and thrashed in confusion and pain.

Isabella took careful aim, pointing a his chest, hoping the heart was

there.

"And this one... is for Phineas," she growled. She fired and scored a

direct hit, causing him to cringe and groan before collapsing to the ground

and going still. Isabella brought the smoking gun to her lips and blew it

off.

"Nobody messes with my knight in shining armor," she growled, then ran

out of the room after the guards.

Fire. Everything was on fire. At least that's what Phineas thought.

And he was right. The corridor he and Hgtfpjsh were in was a

suffocating tunnel of flames and rubble. He didn't know it, but by now most

of the ship looked this. It was only a matter of minutes before the thing

disintegrated completely.

Hgtfpjsh quickly weaved his way through the flames, rubble, and smoke.

He coughed and hacked and struggled not to pass out from the lack of air.

Phineas was lower, so he was better ventilated, but he was so battered from

being tortured that he knew if Hgtfpjsh dropped him he would be too weak to

escape the ship. He looked blearily down the hall and saw the guards raising

their guns to shoot.

"Hgtfpjsh! Guards!" Phineas yelled weakly.

Hgtfpjsh turned and dived behind some rubble to avoid the shots. He

put Phineas down, pulled out his own weapon and began firing shots back.

"Phineas! The docking bay is close! Run the remainder of the way!

I'll keep them busy!"

Phineas attempted to rise, but collapsed with a weak groan.

"You're too injured, aren't you?" Hgtfpjsh observed, barely ducking

before getting creamed by some of the guards' shots.

"Yes..." Phineas moaned.

"Great..." Hgtfpjsh said gruffly, "These are elite bodyguards! I

can't defeat them! Their skill far exceeds mine! What do I do?"

"AARGH!"

Hgtfpjsh looked up just in time to see one of the bodyguards collapse.

"Get him outta here, Hgtfpjsh! I'll hold them off!" Isabella yelled

from further down the burning hall.

The Tkpxzv Captain didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Phineas

and dashed off down the hall. Three of the surviving guards stayed to fight

Isabella, while one broke loose and went after Phineas and Hgtfpjsh.

"Isabella?" Phineas said blearily, "Wait... Isabella. Isabella!"

"She'll have to take care of herself for now, Phineas," Hgtfpjsh said,

guessing his motive for yelling.

"She's going to get killed, Hgtfpjsh!"

"If I try to go back there WE'LL get killed!"

"Please! We have to do-!"

"Ahh!"

Hgtfpjsh crashed to the ground and sent Phineas tumbling across the

floor, barely missing a pile of burning rubble. Phineas looked up and saw

that one of the bodyguards had caught up.

"You will return to the Governor," he said coldly to Phineas. He

walked over and grabbed Phineas with his rope.

CHOOM! CHOOM! CHOOM! CHOOM!

The bodyguard yelled in pain and dropped Phineas. As he collapsed,

Phineas looked up and saw that Hgtfpjsh had shot the guard multiple times

while his back was turned.

"Hgtfpjsh! You're okay!" Phineas cried.

"Actually, I'm not... he just didn't kill me instantly. Goodbye,

Phineas, I hope you get back to Earth."

PLOP. Hgtfpjsh dropped his face to the floor and died.

"Thank you..." Phineas said. He tried to rise but still couldn't. He

was about ready to panic, and it wasn't because he couldn't move, or because

everything was on fire and he would probably be killed in a few minutes, no...

He was worried about Isabella... but he couldn't do anything to help

her. He looked all around him, praying for help...

Then, down at the end of the hall, he saw a certain redhead run by.

The ship was coming apart fast. Everywhere the ceilings were falling

in and the floors were falling out and everything was on fire.

"I hope we get to those docks before-" Stacy began.

"CAAANDAAAAAAAAAACE!"

Everyone stopped.

"Is that who I think it is?" Stacy asked incredulously.

Candace handed Candace the Candasaur Xosizi's body, "Here, hold him."

She ran back a few feet then down the other hall.

"CAAANDAAAAAAACE!"

She dashed up to him. Sure enough, there was Phineas, lying in a heap

on the ground but still screaming for her somehow.

"What happened to you?" Candace asked harshly.

"That's not important right now!" Phineas cried, "We have to save

Isabella! She's down that hallway fighting three elite Tkpxzv bodyguards in

the fire!"

Candace looked up at the Hellish firestorm down the hall and saw a

minor explosion blast out of it.

"She's probably dead," Candace said flatly, "I gotta go before this

whole stupid thing explodes."

"No, Candace, please, help! I know I don't deserve it, but do it for

Isabella!"

"How 'bout I drag you back to Mom to face justice? That sounds like a

good idea."

"Candace you're her only hope!"

Candace grabbed Phineas and slung him over her shoulder then dashed

back to where everyone else was waiting.

"Look what I found," Candace muttered.

"What're you gonna do with him?" Stacy asked.

"Take him home to Mom to get busted hard core!"

"Sounds good to me," Stacy said, grinning.

A flaming chunk of Urdgz fell from the ceiling and the group took off

again, faster this time.

"Candace, please! We have to go back!" Phineas yelled, almost in

tears.

"Look, why the heck would I help you, anyway? You're lucky I don't

just drop you and leave you here!" she retorted.

"Don't do it for me, do it for Isabella!"

"She pushed me over a cliff! She shot me with a laser gun!"

"It was to help me!"

"Doesn't matter, like you said, she knew what she signed up for!"

"I see the rocket!" Candace the Candasaur cried, "We're going to make

it!"

"Candace, I've done so many rotten things these past weeks, and my

best friend is going to die because of them! Please, I don't want that on my

conscience!"

"Oh, now you care?" Candace snapped, "Oh, wait, that's probably

because you HAVE to. You don't feel guilty, Phineas, and you don't care about

Isabella. You finally just got backed into a corner and now all you can do to

save your butt is beg for mercy!"

"If I'm trying to save my own butt, then why don't I just leave

Isabella behind?"

Candace paused, momentarily out-reasoned. She shrugged it off though.

The group reached the rocket, Stacy threw the door open and everyone started

climbing in.

"Candace... you're right. I'm begging for mercy. I did a lot of bad

things and got myself trapped... but what's killing me is that Isabella, who

stood by me through all this, even when I rejected her, is going to pay for my

mistakes. I would die in her place if I could... and I would deserve it too,

but I can't help her... the Tkpxzv clobbered me so badly that I can barely

move."

Candace and Phineas were the last to board the rocket. Candace the

Candasaur sat down in the pilot's seat and started preparing to launch.

Candace turned and reached for the button to close the door. She took one

last look out the burning Tkpxzv craft. She was amazed they had been able to

reach the rocket as easily as they had. There was so much smoke and so much

fire...

"She's most likely dead, Phineas..." Candace said softly.

"No! She's alive! I know it!"

"No you don't."

"Yes I do!"

Candace shut the door and put Phineas on the ground, "Let's get outta

here," she said to the Candasaur.

"Gladly," Candace the Candasaur responded.

"Isabella's still out there, Candace!" Phineas cried, "We-"

"Phineas, NO," Candace said flatly.

The engines roared as Candace the Candasaur started the rocket. The

broken Phineas crawled to his sister's feet, sobbing. She started to walk

away but he grabbed her ankle and held it.

"Candace... please..."

"You're pathetic," Candace said coldly. That made him cry harder,

"Now let go of my leg."

"C-C-Candy..."

Candace paused at the use of his old pet name for her. She looked

down at her groveling brother and gave him a hard stare.

"Candy... please help me... from a brother to a sister... please... I

have nothing left but her..."

Candace was disgusted by his display of weakness, and yet... she heard

the plea. She remembered another time he'd called her Candy... and called

for her help. Even after all he'd done, he was still her little brother...

She looked over at Xosizi's body, which the other Candace had laid against the

wall. She remembered the last things he said.

"Thank you for sparing him... you learned the greatest lesson of the

warrior... love, mercy, compassion..." Candace whispered to herself. She

looked down coldly at her weeping brother. He looked back at her.

"You're not gonna save her, are you, Candy?" he said.

Candace just stared.

Phineas let go of her and just lay there on the floor, weeping

pathetically. The rocket began to rumble.

"Brace yourselves for takeoff," Candace the Candasaur said.

Candace Flynn turned around and opened the door to the rocket back up.

Candace the Candasaur and Stacy looked up in surprise. She reached over and

grabbed her swordspear before looking back at the inferno back on the Tkpxzv

craft.

She gulped.

Phineas looked up in surprise, "Candace?"

"If I take too long, take off," Candace said.

"Candace, don't!" Stacy yelled.

Candace let out a war yell and charged back onto the Tkpxzv craft.

The smoke stung her eyes and the flames singed her skin, but she barreled

through anyway.

"It's what Xosizi would have done, right?" Candace reasoned, not

totally certain. Within seconds she was practically blind from smoke and

fire. Her clothes stuck to her as she sweated profusely from the heat. She

weaved through the piles of burning ship in the halls as best she could,

getting burned frequently but refusing to stop. At one point a chunk of

burning ceiling fell down on top of her. Luckily it wasn't heavy enough to

crush her, but she had to roll quickly to put herself out. She eventually worked

her way through the inferno to the intersection where she'd found Phineas.

She turned down the hall and started heading in the direction she figured

Isabella would be in. She gagged on the smoke.

"Candace... you're an *COUGH* idiot," she muttered to herself, "Both

*HACK* you AND Isabella are gonna die down here..."

The world was spinning. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. One

of the guards were dead... but not because she'd shot him... a piece of

burning rubble had fallen on top of him and roasted him. The other two kept

firing at her behind their rubble. She fired off a couple more shots, trying

to hold them off, but she knew it was no use. It was only a matter of time

before either they killed her or she succumbed to the thick smoke. She fired

a couple of poorly aimed shots then fell back behind her cover, burned,

suffocating, and completely exhausted.

"I made an oath..." she whispered, "And I fulfilled it..."

She heard plopping noises and saw the two bodyguards coming around her

cover and raising their weapons. She raised her gun to fire, but got

clobbered by several shots from the guards. Her weapon fell from her hand as

she gritted her teeth in pain and collapsed. She looked blearily up at the

two guards, who seemed to be trying to decide if she was dead. They raised

their weapons for the killing shots.

"Goodbye... Phineas," Isabella whispered, "I love you..." She closed

her eyes and waited for the "CHOOM! CHOOM!" of the lasers.

CLANG!

That wasn't the noise she was expecting. She looked up and saw that

one of the guards had just been stuck to the wall by a twenty-foot long sword.

The other one began firing into the smoke, but he missed and the swordspear

ripped out of his buddy and sliced into him instead. The creature roared in

pain and fired wildly into the fire at his invisible target. The swordspear

started pushing forward and back and sawing into the Tkpxzv. He screamed and

fired madly but ultimately got sawed in half. He fell to the floor and died.

Isabella was confused. Had a Candasaur gotten separated from the group

and rescued her? They were the only ones she'd seen with weapons like that...

unless of course you counted-but why would she-?

The swordspear advanced through the smoke. As it did, she saw a

stone with a lightning symbol on it that confirmed the least-likely scenario.

"Candace?" Isabella croaked.

"Isabella?" Candace's voice called, "Where are you?"

Isabella leapt out from behind her cover and ran straight at the

voice. Moments later she saw Candace through the smoke, ran to her and

embraced her.

"Candace, you saved my life, thank you!" she cried.

"Don't thank me, thank your freaking, triangle-faced, no good, son of

a-"

A powerful explosion blasted out of the floor in front of them and

nearly vaporized them both.

"You can swear later, Candace, we need to get out of here!" Isabella

said.

"Agreed," Candace took Isabella's hand and the two of them ran back

down the hall.

A blast from the Tkpxzv craft washed over the side of the rocket.

"This thing's almost gone!" Candace the Candasaur yelled, "If she's

not back in thirty seconds I'm going to have to leave!"

"C'mon, Candace, hurry!" Stacy pleaded.

Phineas stared out at the firestorm, hoping beyond hope that-

A massive chain of explosions started booming from deep inside the

craft and sounded as if they were coming up the hallway.

"I've gotta move!" Candace the Candasaur yelled, "That'll blast us to

bits if-!"

"Wait!" Phineas cried.

"Yeah, look!" Stacy yelled.

Two silhouettes, one tall and one short, were racing toward the

rocket, barely ahead of the advancing chain of explosions.

"There it is!" Candace hacked, "Run, run, run!"

She and Isabella could feel the craft blowing up behind them. They

knew it was only a matter of seconds before the floor exploded out from under

them.

"Go, Candace, go, you can make it!" Stacy shouted.

"You're almost there, Isabella! Go, go, go!" Phineas yelled.

The two girls were mere feet from the rocket. It looked like they

would make it-

Then the blasts caught up.

Candace instinctively jumped as she felt the floor collapse out from

under her. Isabella grabbed onto her shirt and the two literally flew toward

the rocket.

They were too far. Candace and Isabella began falling. As

she saw the rocket falling away, Candace made a mad attempt to save them by

swinging her spear toward the rocket. Smoke engulfed her and Isabella and

blocked the rocket from view, dashing their last hopes of survival. Candace

prepared to splat down into the Tkpxzv craft's lower levels... but suddenly

realized she was no longer falling. In fact, she was slowly rising. She

looked down at Isabella.

"Did we die?" she asked her.

"I don't... think so..." Isabella replied.

Candace suddenly felt something warm run down her hands. She looked

up and saw blood running down the swordspear and onto her fingers.

"Blood?" Candace asked, then it hit her.

"Stacy! Is that you?" Candace yelled.

"Aaahh!" Stacy replied in agony.

"You're the best friend I've ever had, Stacy!" Candace cried.

"Oooww!" Stacy cried... tears.

Soon Candace and Isabella saw the rocket, and moments later, Stacy,

hands slick with blood, pulled Candace and Isabella into it. Isabella

got off Candace and shut the door, and Candace the Candasaur took off and flew

into space.

Candace embraced Stacy as soon as she got in, "Stacy! Thank you so

much!"

Stacy laughed and cried simultaneously as Candace hugged her. As she

pulled away she said, "Candace, heh heh... check this out..."

Stacy touched her finger to the ground and began painting an image

with her blood. A few moments later a picture of a girl grabbing the business

end of a swordspear pulling two girls hanging on the handle into a rocket

emerged.

"We've all got a picture to draw..." Stacy giggled, "And that's what I

drew today."

"Stacy?" Candace asked.

"Yeah?"

"Go get a bandage."

"Good idea," Stacy got up to go look for the first aid kit. Phineas

and Isabella were over near one wall of the rocket, also embracing. Both were

crying and Phineas was apologizing profusely for the way he'd treated

her. Candace looked over at her Candasaur counterpart and saw her

speaking into her communicator. Out the rocket's window she could see

hundreds of spaceships fighting each other back and forth.

"Candace, status report!" Flynnya's voice said from the rocket's

communicator.

"We're out!" Candace the Candasaur replied, "But all are wounded

except me! Retreating to hospital ship!"

"Candace..." Candace of Earth said.

She looked over, "What?"

"How much gas we got in this thing?"

"Plenty, why?"

"Take me home, I've had enough."

The Candasaur grinned, "Sounds good. Setting course for Sol System."

"Sol System? What are you talking about?" Flynnya asked from the

radio.

"I'm taking Candace and Stacy back to Earth," the Candasaur replied,

"Think you can win without 'em?"

"We've practically won already. The Alions are crushing the Alpha

Centaurian craft. We'll have the planet within an hour."

"Excellent."

"Tell Candace and Stacy thanks for me, okay? Trisaria will remember

them for all time!"

"Will do! See you in a few days, Flynnya!"

"'Bye! Flynnya, out!"

The line went dead. Candace the Candasaur turned to Candace Flynn,

"Did you hear her?"

"Yep."

"Good," the Candasaur turned on the high-powered thrusters and blasted

toward the star that Candace Flynn had been born near... good old Sol.


	5. Chapter 5: Return to Earth

Chapter 5: Return to Earth

It took two days to reach the Sol System. Though they didn't fight

one another, Candace and Phineas stayed away from each other the whole time.

Phineas sat in a corner and hung out with Isabella while Candace, Candace, and

Stacy spent time with each other on other parts of the rocket. Poor Xosizi

hung out in the freezer compartment. Nothing of any real interest transpired

the whole time. They eventually reached Earth and Candace the Candasaur

beamed them all down into the Flynn's back yard (the rocket was too big to

land there) and then took off to return to the Epsilon Eridani system.

Candace watched the rocket blast away, then came back down to Earth.

The house was back. Apparently Mom and Dad had good insurance (or

Carl and Major Monogram had taken care of things.) The smashed log flume was

gone, and the tree and her tree house were still there. Candace felt an arm

around her shoulder.

"Welcome home, kid," Stacy said.

"I can't believe I'm actually back," Candace said.

"Are you happy?"

"I guess... yeah."

A few feet away, Isabella and Phineas were having a similar

conversation.

"We're home!" Isabella cried happily.

"Yeah... sure..." Phineas mumbled.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't have a home anymore, Isabella. After the things I've done, I

can't face Mom and Dad and Ferb. I have to leave."

Isabella thought a moment, "They'll probably be pretty mad," she

agreed, "But I think they'll forgive you."

"No they won't."

"Yeah they will... if Candace will. She has more against you than

anyone else. If she forgives you they'll have to let things go."

"She won't forgive me either."

"I think she will. Why do you think she helped you a couple days

ago?"

"She probably thought it was the right thing to do."

"She still loves you, Phineas, and if you ask her to forgive you, she

will."

"I don't think so..."

"Just try. What do you have to lose?"

Phineas didn't have a good answer to that. He looked over at Candace,

who was still talking to Stacy and sighed. He walked over to his older sister

and tapped her. She turned and looked down at him.

"What?" she asked.

"Candace... I just... um..." Phineas began.

Candace stared icily at him.

"I... I need to..." he bumbled.

"You're trying to ask for forgiveness, aren't you?" Candace said

dully.

"Well... no. I can't," Phineas turned away and started walking for

the backyard gate, "I don't deserve it, and I won't ask for it."

Candace, Stacy, and Isabella stared as he marched dejectedly across

the yard. He reached the gate then turned and looked at them once more.

"I'm sorry..." he said softly, "I'm sorry for everything I did. It

doesn't matter at this point... but I'm sorry," He turned to leave.

"Stop."

Phineas paused and looked back. Candace was the one who had spoken.

"Xosizi wanted me to tell you that he forgives you," Candace said.

"Xosizi? The Alion I killed?"

"That's right, and if he can forgive you then... so can I."

Phineas looked a little surprised, then hung his head and shook it,

"You don't have to, Candace. I don't deserve forgiveness and I don't deserve

to be a part of this family. I'm gonna go... somewhere, I guess. Jump off a

bridge, maybe..."

Candace walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "I don't

care what you did, Phineas. You're my brother, and that will never change."

Phineas looked at her and held her gaze for a moment.

"Thanks, Candy..." he finally said.

She pulled him into a tight hug, "That's what I'm here for," He put

his face into her shoulder and cried softly.

"It's okay, Phineas," she said, tears streaming down her own cheeks,

"It's all over."

The two of them sat and held one another for several seconds, then

Candace looked up at Isabella and Stacy.

"Get over here, you two. You deserve hugs, too."

Isabella and Stacy looked at each other, shrugged, then went over and

joined the embrace. The four of them held each other for a long time, all

weeping, all glad that the nightmare was finally over...

And all glad that they were back together again.

When they finally released each other, they tried to go into the

Flynn's house.

The door was locked… and no one was home.

After that they went over to Isabella's house. It was also locked...

and no one was home. Then they went to Stacy's house and got the same result.

They wanted in, though, so Candace went into Stacy's backyard and got the

stilts.

Ah, memories.

After that spectacle (and Candace nearly wetting herself again),

Candace unlocked the door and let everyone in. They used Stacy's phone to

call their families, who it turned out were all at a ceremony honoring Perry

the Platypus for saving Danville from Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Their families came

home quickly when they learned that their long-lost children had returned, and

there was quite a mushy scene of love and joy when they were all reunited at

last. Even Phineas was welcomed home with open arms. The families had a

barbecue in Stacy's backyard to celebrate. They stayed out 'till late into

the night, laughing and carrying on and just glad to be back together. They

finally dispersed in the wee hours of the morning, returning to their homes

with joy.

Candace opened her eyes slowly. She smiled and snuggled her pillow,

realizing that she was home and safe at last.

Wait a minute.

She sat up and looked around the room.

The house had been rebuilt, that was for sure, and she was in a room

with a nice, comfortable bed in it...

But all her stuff was gone. She looked around at the barren room and

sighed.

"I guess they can rebuild the house... but they couldn't replace my

stuff because they didn't know what I'd had..." she muttered.

She flopped back down on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.

"A clean slate... whether you want it or not," she said.

She lay there for a moment, then noticed she had to pee. She got out

of bed and went to the bathroom to do her business. After she'd flushed the

toilet, she went to wash her hands. While she did, she looked up and saw her

reflection in the mirror above the sink. She stared in awe.

"Dang... I look just like the witch from my nightmare," she muttered.

She stared for a second, then left the bathroom. She went and found a

pencil and a piece of paper, then went back to her room. She drew something

on the page and then taped it up on her wall.

It was a picture of her seven-year-old self hugging Phineas after the

fight with the rotweiler.

"I finally know what I look like... I can finally draw my picture,"

Candace said. She looked at it for a bit, then went back to bed.

It would be nice to say that things went back to the way they were

before... but they didn't. For one thing, Summer was over, but Phineas was to

tired from everything to make any big inventions anyway (though Linda kept her

word and allowed he and Ferb to.) He and Ferb returned to school after a week

and they didn't really do anything too exciting until Christmas vacation...

except that Phineas and Isabella made themselves official (or, in other words,

changed their Facebook statuses to "In a Relationship.") Rarely had two kids

their age been so in love... but then again, rarely had two kids their age

been through the things together that they had.

Stacy got a lot of stitches and couldn't use her hands very well for a

couple of weeks. After she healed she started getting a lot more attention

from Candace than she had before. With no one to bust, her best friend was a

lot less busy. The two of them made a big Candasaur flag and hung it up in

Candace's room, along with her swordspear and Spirit Rock.

"Never forget..." Stacy said as they hung the flag.

"Never," Candace agreed.

Perry continued his usual routine with Doofenshmirtz, though he

still wondered how his nemesis had gotten out of jail.

Back in space, the Candasaurs and the Alions captured the Sirius

system, though the Alions ended up controlling it since the Candasaurs didn't

have the numbers, resources, or firepower to do so. The success of the

Alion/Candasaur alliance led many other races to revolt against the Tkpxzv,

and their empire began descending into chaos and war.

Xosizi's body was returned to Tizilidai and buried with his

forefathers. The Alion Chief himself came to the funeral to honor the fallen

soldier, calling him "The greatest warrior our world has seen since the Battle

of Aizyalia."

Flynnya began rebuilding her planet. It would take years to recover

from the Tkpxzv's destruction. Triso continued to guide her as she worked.

Jim went home. He was glad.

Candace the Candasaur joined the Candasaurs and became the first

interstellar explorer of their world. She would do many great things for her

people throughout her life... but that's another story.

As for Candace Flynn... she faced an uncertain future. With no one to

bust, she had to find other things to do... but now she knew who she was, and

that gave her the strength to draw a new picture... one that was all her own.

THE END

And that's _The Picture_! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you did, great! Give a review and let me know what you liked. If you DIDN'T enjoy

it, then give a review and let me know what you didn't like and how I can fix it.

Either way, at least write a review telling me that you finished all four parts of the story...

I'm interested to see how many people are actually able to plod through the whole

thing. Thanks all for reading! CandasaurFlag is out, PEACE!


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